A Little Bit Of Magic
by rose013
Summary: James S. Potter, son of Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and Summer Green, muggleborn with a dad in the Police Force, a baker mom, and a sister getting her Medical degree, have never gotten along; but through a series of events they fall for each other. James S. P.xOC. This summary kinda stinks, sorry :/ better than it sounds.
1. Owls and Ice Cream

**a/n: Hiya! This is my first HP fanfic, so please tell me through reviews what you think of it! criticism is appreciated, but please be kind!**

Chapter One: Owls and Ice Cream

My owl for Hogwarts had come that morning and now I walked down Diagon Alley, scanning the list as I went. The morning had come wrapped in chill, nipping at noses and fingers, unnatural for this time of year. I glanced up and down the street before crossing, being careful to go unseen by anyone, it was one of those days that I simply wanted to spend alone, without the sound of...

"Sunny!" I heard a male voice shout out loudly and I internally grimaced. Turning around I glanced the crowd quickly and was about to keep walking when someone tackled me into a bear hug.

"Hey Lily," I said with a small smile, rumpling her hair a bit, she released me and stood back for a moment, putting her hands on her hips.

"Were you avoiding us?" she said with a pout. I sighed and glanced over her head, this was her third year at Hogwarts but she was still just as excited about everything magical as she had been when she was 11, off in the distance I spotted three bobbing heads of black followed by one of fiery red, like Lily's, it had to be the Potter family.

With a sigh I let her lead me through the crowd towards her family, staring longingly over my shoulder at the ice cream parlor with a solitary table. Just this morning I had gotten off of the phone with my older sister, Kelly. She was never accepted into Hogwarts, but never took that personally. However, she did have a rather horrible problem with choosing heartbreakers for boyfriends and we had just finished up a rather lengthy phone call where she sobbed for hours about her latest breakup and "oh, whatever have I done wrong?". Not that I didn't love my sister, I did, really. Just, once you go through a sob ridden breakup phone call every two weeks since you turned eight, well, it really does start to wear down on you.

"Summer!" Albus called out, finally catching sight of my blonde head being dragged through the crowd by his little sister. James lifted his gaze from the ground to stare at me before rolling his eyes and going back to studying his shoes.

James and I had never gotten along very well, he was never particularly mean-spirited, or even rude. In fact, he was actually pretty sweet and charming. But he went through a new girlfriend every week, sometimes even more than that, and he was hardly the type to settle down. Also, I wasn't very fond of how he found his way into detention more often than not. He also happened to be a very cocky prat, with good looks that he wasn't afraid to use to get what he wanted.

I was enveloped in yet another hug and, rolling my eyes, I returned it. Albus held me away from him and grinned.

"I think you've grown at least an inch since we last saw each other," Albus said, grinning as I tried to smack him in the head. He commonly remarked that if I didn't stop growing then I would pass up him by seventh year.

Let me tell you right now, it sucks being tall. There are hardly any guys taller than you and if you happen to find one then they're either an arse and completely unpleasant, a player, dating a midget, or all of the above. Albus and James were both still taller than me but they were among the last guys left at Hogwarts.

Mr. Potter gave me a small smile while Mrs. Potter scowled at her son.

"Stop teasing the poor girl!" she exclaimed, sounding a lot like her own mother. Albus snickered lightly and grabbed my arm, pulling me excitedly towards the ice cream parlor I had been previously headed towards.

"Ice cream anyone? I'm starving!" he complained.

"You're always starving, Al!" James muttered, shaking his head.

"Speak for yourself," Albus shot back, ordering from the counter. He turned to me with a questioning gaze and I shook my head. He rolled his eyes at me and ordered a double scoop of chocolate something-or-other.

"Come on, you don't need to buy me anything," I said, but Albus just smirked at me. I threw my hands up and walked over the table they had chosen.

"Is he always that stubborn?" I asked, half-angry, half-amused to Mrs. Potter. She laughed, smiling at me and patting my hand. The Potter family had always been kind, ready and willing to take in their kid's friends at a moments notice, no questions asked.

My sister's problems momentarily forgotten I sat with the Potter's and enjoyed the warm afternoon air and the playful banter between us, bar James and I of course. A little while later I happened to glance at my watch and jump in surprise, nearly three hours had passed!

"Oh! Whoops! Al, I was supposed to be back hours ago! Thank you so much for everything," I smiled at Mr. and Mrs. Potter.

"It was nothing," they said, grinning. Albus stood and gave me a quick hug, followed quickly by Lily, I turned but then stopped and looked back at Albus.

"And if you see Rose soon then please, do tell her to answer my owl soon, she hasn't replied for nearly two weeks!" Albus laughed lightly and nodded, with a quick wave I slipped into the nearest fireplace and dropped the bit of floo powder I kept in a little flask with me into it.

When I stepped out of the fireplace at my home Kelly wrapped me into a hug. Shrieking in my ear some nonsense about missing me, and me being late, and maybe a bit about a wizard kidnapping me.

"Kelly," I said when she didn't stop, "Kelly!" still she kept on with her rant about how she couldn't believe I didn't call and that was really quite irresponsible.

"KELLY!" I shouted into her ear, her mouth opened, ready to spew her next stage of the rant and then she closed it, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry, I was with the Potters and I lost track of time, honestly, I can get around so quickly now that I didn't even think to call." Kelly lips immediately went up into a devilish grin.

"Were you with James," she said, drawing out his name unnecessarily until my fair skin blushed a very deep shade of red.

"Sod off Kelly, you know we aren't like that," I said, somewhat exasperated. She stuck out her tongue at me and chuckled.

"All the same, I want to meet him!" she said with a smirk, and turned towards the door.

"Kelly," I said warningly, watching as she walked through the door and started talking to mom, dad was still at work, which was normal on, well, every day. He was a police officer, head of his department, and he was often called out to catch criminals. Mom had worry lines beyond her years from all the times that he had stayed out all night without sending her word.

From in the living room I heard only murmurings of voices until mom called out to me. Wary, I walked into the kitchen, sending Kelly a look, whatever mom was about to say was all her doing.

"Kelly was just telling me about your wonderful friends from school. It's a shame that they've never come over before!" she exclaimed, stirring a pan of spaghetti. "Why don't you owl them and invite them over? I'd love to meet them!"

"But mom..." I muttered, shooting Kelly a death glare. Mom sent me a stern look.

"I'm your mother, I believe that I deserve to know who my little girl is making friends with," her tone held a note of finality to it and with another glare at Kelly I shuffled off to my room upstairs.

_Dear Albus,_

_My mom was wondering if you would like to come over for dinner in a few days? Hopefully Rose will be here too. Kelly went around with her loud mouth and now my mom's gotten it into her head that all respecting mothers know who their kid's friends are. Mom says it'll be on this Friday at six. Anyways, I hope you can make it. Oh, and she says to invite James too._

_Love,_  
_Summer_

I sent an almost identical letter to Rose and sent them out on my owl Cymatilis, which was a latin word for blue. Mom had named her after we watched the snowy owl fly around at night, her feathers had been as blue as water under the moonlight.

Not too short afterwards Cymatilis flew back in the window and nibbled on my finger until I tossed her a piece of toast and took the reply letters off of her leg.

_Dear Summer,_

_Rose happened to be here, we'll all be there. Tell your mom hi from us and that we can't wait to meet her either, you've spoken so highly of her. I remember Kelly, and I'm sure that she just wants to make sure you're safe._

_Love,_  
_Al, Rose, and James_


	2. Dinner For Seven

**a/n: okay! So here's the next chapter, I've only read through it once because I really wanted to get this up before I forgot (I meant to get it up last night, and the night before that too) so if there's a few mistakes, I'm sorry! Anyways, enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer (I forgot about this last time): anything you may recognize is property of J.K. I only wish I was the genius that she is!**

Chapter Two: Dinner For Seven

Friday came all too soon for me, but definitely not for Kelly, she was practically bouncing off the walls, which was quite a feat considering that she's 20 and in her second year of college (she's getting her medical degree) and is hardly excited by anything bar summer holidays and no homework.

It was five o'clock on the dot and Kelly was rushing from room to room, cleaning like there was a fire behind her (though I told her repeatedly not to bother, they wouldn't care if the house had a few newspapers on the seat, honestly). After running through the living room five times, seeing me sitting on the couch, she snapped. Her eyes narrowed and she perched her hands on her hips, lips pursing.

"Why aren't you ready?" she asked stiffly.

"I am re-" I started.

"You aren't even showered, honestly, go upstairs and take a shower! And put on something a little nicer, maybe that pink sundress that I got you last year for Christmas!" I nearly choked on the cookie that I was trying, unsuccessfully, to eat. Kelly always forgot that I happened to hate the color pink, and wouldn't be caught seen dead in a dress, but she was taking none of that.

Finally, just to get her out of my hair I ran upstairs and jumped into the shower, letting the heat pound out the knots in my muscles that I hadn't even noticed before now. It seemed like only minutes later when Kelly was calling up to me that I had five minutes and I swore, stumbling into the first t-shirt and pair of jeans I saw, running my fingers through my hair as I put on mascara and eyeliner with one hand. The doorbell rung and I swore again when it made me jab myself in the eye. Overall it didn't look too bad, and there was nothing I could do about the wet hair so I ran down the stairs, pulling open the door. Albus and Rose grinned at me, while James hung back a bit, raising an eyebrow at my wet hair and lack of attention to my outfit.

"What are you wearing?" Kelly demanded from behind me, I winced and answered without turning to her.

"Um, jeans and a shirt?"

"Go change!" she demanded, luckily just then mom walked in.

"Kelly leave your sister alone, and that dress was pretty awful, that color really didn't suit her." Albus snickered and I swatted at him half-heartedly.

"You wore a dress?" James asked incredulously.

"No. I didn't." I said, he rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets, pushing past Albus and Rose to get into the house.

"Aren't you going to invite us in, Sunny?" he said, looking around.

"Well, I would, but seeing as you've already made yourself at home," I muttered as he flopped down onto the couch.

"Can I call you Sunny?" Kelly asked eagerly.

"If you want me to kill you," I said nonchalantly, "feet off the table, James," Kelly pouted and slipped back into the kitchen.

"I'm Summer's mom, if you hadn't already guessed," mom said happily, wiping her hands off on her apron. Then she held out her hand. With a half smile James stood and walked over.

"James Potter, year above Summer, and Albus' brother," he said, shaking her hand, "it's a pleasure to meet you, you have a lovely home." Albus, Rose, and I started at him in surprise, when mom turned to look at Albus he shot me a wink. Of course.

Introductions didn't take long and mom waved us out of the house so Kelly and her could finish up preparations for dinner.

"Go have fun," mom said, smiling and waving goodbye.

"Your mom seems nice," Albus said and Rose nodded, looping her arm with mine.

"And your sister has an awfully nice arse," James said with a smirk, I shot him a glare but he ignored me. I took them on a walk through our neighborhood and we made small talk, while James managed to comment about Kelly's arse three times and generally make the conversation awkward for all of us.

"Tell me again why Kelly and your mom wanted him to come?" Rose murmured into my ear. I chuckled and shook my head.

"No clue," I said and she laughed too, eventually, as the sun sank lower and lower into the sky, I suggested we head back and nobody argued, the walk back was quiet and the air was growing colder and colder. I shivered and Albus flashed me a look, then slung an arm over my shoulder. Finally the house came into view and we dashed up the steps and I swung open the door, Kelly was lounging on the couch with the TV on to a wizarding quidditch match. One of the teams scored and she cheered loudly.

"Ireland's up!" she called to my mom in the other room.

"I didn't know your sister was a quidditch fan," James said, looking at me. Well, since we don't really talk, that not surprising, prat. I thought, glaring at him as he went to take a seat next to her.

"Kelly, turn off the TV! Dinner's ready!" mom called from the kitchen, a quick glance inside showed that she was setting out plates, one empty one as always, waiting on the placemat, ready to be served. Kelly groaned but complied and grabbed a serving of the chicken on rice that my mom had made, then dished herself a larger than necessary scoop of sauce. We went down the line and when we were all sitting I eyed the empty plate that sat next to my mom sadly.

"No dad?" I asked, my voice soft. Something strange flashed over James' face but it was gone before I could pin it down. Mom shook her head and started cutting her chicken. The mood of dinner was somber for a minute until Kelly smiled mischievously at me.

"Well, tell me about yourself," Kelly asked, twirling a piece of her golden hair around her finger, looking eagerly from James to Albus to Rose and then back to James.

"Well, I met Summer on the Hogwart Express first year. Albus and I were looking for a compartment and..." Rose was saying, I remembered that day.

_Smoke filled the air as soon as I pushed through the barrier (Professor McGonagall had mentioned how to get onto Platform 9 ¾ when she visited us). Kelly gaped around and my mom was smiling widely at the huge train ahead of us. My trolley bumped over the floor and there were voices everywhere._

_"It's amazing," Kelly breathed, staring around with wide eyes. And it truly was amazing, it was still sinking in that I was a witch, going to Hogwarts, the best school of witchcraft and wizardry that there was. Cymatilis, a snowy owl I had gotten on my first trip to Diagon Alley, blinked sleepily at me._

_"You only have a few minutes, you better be heading onto the train!" mom said, giving me a hug, "Send your sister and I letters! Every week! We love you!" Kelly nodded, joining the hug._

_My stomach lurched as I stepped onto the train. What if I didn't do well? What if nobody liked me? What if I didn't like anybody else?_

_Traveling down the length of the train I stepped into an empty compartment, lugging my trunk in, smiling widely, worries forgotten momentarily as I saw mom and Kelly through the window, still waving madly at the train. They had been so excited when I got my owl and Professor McGonagall had showed up shortly afterwards. Suddenly, the door slid open and a boy's head peeked in. He had messy black hair that stuck up a bit in the back and bright green eyes framed with glasses._

_"Do you mind? Everywhere else is full," the boy said. I shook my head, turning to look out the window again. He stepped inside and a girl with curly red hair followed him in._

_"My name is Rose," the girl, Rose, said, "and is your hair naturally that color?"_

_"Mine is Summer, and yeah, it is" I replied, pulling on one of my long curls. My hair wasn't quite brown or blonde or red. Rather it was a mix, with some strands of orange, a silvery-blonde color, and something almost pink for good measure._

_"I'm Albus," said the boy, I smiled at him and kept pulling at my hair. The compartment was quiet for a moment before Albus and Rose started talking about something called Quidditch._

_"What's Quidditch?" I asked, and a slow smile spread over Albus' face._

_"Oh, now you've got him," Rose said with a smile. Albus then went on to explain to me how there were seven players a team. Two beaters, three chasers, one keeper, and one seeker. He explained the purpose of the four balls, the Quaffle, the Bludgers (there were two), and the Snitch._

_Soon Rose was telling tales of books she had read and classes she was eventually hoping to take that her mom had taken when she was her age. They also told me about the four houses, how Hufflepuff was kind hearted, Ravenclaw studious and witty, Gryffindor brave and strong, and Slytherin sneaky and clever._

_"I hope I'm in Gryffindor!" Albus said, and Rose nodded._

_"Though I don't think Hufflepuff sounds that bad, does it?" I half-asked, staring at them. Rose shook her head._

_"Not at all, I just wouldn't want to be in Slytherin," she shuddered, "Dad's always telling me that there isn't a wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." Albus looked troubled and she put a hand on his shoulder. "You know James was just messing with you, right?" she said soothingly._

_"James is my older brother," Albus said as way of explanation, "he's a second year."_

_"And a complete prat," Rose added under her breath._

Rose had launched into a run down of Hogwarts Quidditch games and classes. Then Albus told of his job as seeker and what you had to do to play it. James interrupted various times to inject his own opinions. I heard the quiet click of the front door but everyone else was laughing at something they'd said. Quietly, I stood up and walked into the hallway where my dad was slipping out of his jacket.

"Dad," I said with a smile, giving him a hug.

"Summer? Where'd you go off to?" Albus called from the other room.

"I didn't know we were having guests over," dad said with a tired smile, "if I had I would've tried to get home earlier." I was a little stung that he wouldn't try to get home earlier if it was just us, and not only from that, but I had told him, multiple times. With a sigh, I shook my head, it wasn't really his fault, there was just a lot on his plate at work. Kelly poked her head out and a smile lit up her face.

"Dad!" she exclaimed, and came over to join the hug. I snuck out from under her arm and ran back into the kitchen. Despite myself, I was smiling while I filled the empty plate with food. The rest of the night passes in a blur of chatting and laughing, after Albus and the other went home for the night my dad turned to me with a small smile.

"That James, he likes you," he said, raising an eyebrow. I had to keep myself from bursting into laughter by biting my lip.

"No, we aren't even really friends. We hardly ever talk, plus, he's a huge prat," I said, Kelly scoffed from behind me.

"Something tells me that isn't entirely his fault," she said, walking towards me, "knowing you, you can be very..." she paused, searching for the right word.

"Intimidating?" my dad offered, he put a hand on my shoulder, "from what I saw, he seems like a decent bloke. I don't know what he's done before to make you think poorly of him but, guys, we can be stupid, give him a chance, Summer." I scoffed but didn't say anything. I would never like James, he was an arrogant toerag, and anyways, Kelly and my dad were crazy if they thought he like me. It was just ridiculous, beyond ridiculous, it was absurd.


	3. The Train To Hogwarts

**a/n: Sorry for the wait! I wanted to get this chapter up tonight because I don't know when I'll next be able to update, with finals coming up and everything! So I'm sorry if I don't get back to this for a few weeks, but if I haven't updated by Christmas feel free to yell at me! (my Winter Break starts on the 18th if any of you were wondering). I have some ideas for the next few chapters planned out but if you guys have any ideas feel free to PM me or Review (hint, hint ;) ). Alright, enough of my rambling! Enjoy!**

Chapter Three: The Train to Hogwarts

By the time we finally got to the station I only had a couple of minutes until the train was set to leave and I gave a rushed hug to mom, Kelly, and dad (he had taken the morning off from work at the other's insistence) and scrambled onto the train. I quickly found the compartment that Albus, James, Lily, and one of her third year friends had taken refuge in.

"Has anyone seen Rose?" I asked, shoving my trunk into the last space left. Albus and James shook their heads and Lily shrugged. With a sigh I stepped back into the hallway, peeking into compartments as I went. Finally, I spotted her bright red hair and slid the door open.

"Finally, Rose, I've been looking everywhere for you!" then I saw what she happened to be doing in that compartment, and more importantly, who she happened to be doing it with. My face turned almost as bright a red as Rose's hair. "Oh! Well - I'm - I'm sorry! I'm interrupting! I'll just... go..."

"No, you're fine," Scorpius was saying but I slid the door shut quickly. Rose, my best friend Rose, snogging Scorpius Malfoy. It's not like it was surprising, we had all been expecting them to hook up for ages now, but walking in on a snog fest was something I had been hoping to never live to do. I half-ran back to my compartment with the others.

Lily gave me a weird look but it was Albus that spoke, "You okay?" he asked and James looked up at my flushed face.

"Yeah, I'm-" at that moment the compartment door slid open again to reveal a slightly frazzled Rose.

"What's up with you two?" James asked, annoyed, pausing whatever he'd been doing.

"Nothing!" we both said at the same time. Albus raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Hey, er, Summer? Could I talk to you for a sec?" Rose asked quietly so that only I would hear. I nodded and we slipped out into the hallway, then down the train a ways until we found an empty compartment. I placed a quick silencing charm over our compartment and then turned to Rose, a smirk forming on my lips.

"So, you and Scorpius?" I said, enjoying her look of discomfort as she shifted in her seat.

"I was going to tell you, Summer! Honest! We just didn't know how to break it to anyone... And, well, we just decided to keep quiet for now... But now I see how awful an idea that was and-" she started in a rush but I held up a hand, silencing her.

"Rose, I'm not mad," I said quietly, looking her dead in the eyes.

"You-you're not?"

"Of course not, silly! You guys are so cute together! How long have you been dating? That obviously wasn't your first kiss! I want details!" Rose smiled at me, then leaned back and told me everything that had happened since they got together last year. By the time we got back to our compartment the boys were laying down, bored out of their minds, a game of Exploding Snap laying forgotten on the floor, candies were strewn about the compartment and Albus was flipping a Chocolate Frog card over in his hands, his expression blank.

"Where have you guys been? We're so bored! We need entertainment!" Albus exclaimed, scrambling up quickly, looking at us with puppy dog eyes.

"Obviously," Rose said, "but anyways, we should be getting there soon, why aren't you two in your robes?" she put her hands on her hips and scowled at them, though a smile was teasing around the edges. In moments like these I truly saw her mother in her, I'd only met Mr. and Mrs. Weasley three times but each time I was amazed with how in control Mrs. Weasley seemed, she could wind in her husband and their friend Mr. Potter with an ease that amazed me.

Rose was right, barely any time had passed before the train trudged to a stop and we exited, rushing to get to a carriage. I stared up as Hogwarts came slowly into view, even now, after five years, it never ceased to amaze me.

"I'm so hungry!" James exclaimed as we walked into the great hall, "So, so hungry, I hope that there isn't a speech."

"When aren't you hungry, James?" Albus asked with a sigh and James grinned at him, reaching out to ruffle his hair, but Albus pulled away before he could follow through. We sat down, waiting eagerly for the sorting ceremony to being.

Just as James opened his mouth again, probably to complain about Professor McGonagall taking so long, when the doors to the great hall swung open and a line of first years walked in, staring around in awe. I smiled, still remembering my sorting.

_The doors opened and we walked inside, Albus grinning widely at my awed expression, looking around at the ceiling and the simple vastness of the space. The older students watched us with a mixture of excitement and amusement, probably at our faces._

_"Dad's told me all about Hogwarts, and he's right, it's amazing here," Albus said, craning his neck to find his brother, James, already seated at the Gryffindor table. I smiled at James but he didn't notice, too busy scanning the crowd and occasionally muttering to the boys sitting around him. The sorting started with Professor McGonagall calling out a name, "Abbott, Amy", but my attention was soon turned to Albus._

_"The ceiling is enchanted, Aunt Hermione told me that she read all about it in Hogwarts, A History, and according to Uncle George says that in my dad's second year he pulled Godric's sword out of the sorting hat. Dad doesn't really like to talk about everything he did in school though, Mom just says he's modest," Albus said. I stared around in even more awe than before, even being muggleborn I'd heard stories of the legendary Harry Potter._

_"Green, Summer" Professor McGonagall called out and I walked up to the stool, a dusty old hat with a rip at the brim was sitting there and she picked it up. Suddenly nervous I jumped up the last few steps and sat down hard on the stool, the hat slipped down over my eyes and I jumped when a small voice spoke to me._

_"Hmmm, plenty of bravery there, yes, yes, and there's more than enough loyalty, better put you in GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted the last word to everyone and I walked happily over to the Gryffindor table, sitting down with a few others that had already made it. It wasn't long before I was joined by Albus and not that long after that by Rose._

I glanced up, a little surprised that the ceremony was already over and that Professor McGonagall was standing up to make her speech. I leaned forwards, eager to hear what she had to say, I always found her speeches incredibly interesting, but just then James whispered loudly.

"Ugh! Why can't we just eat already?" I turned angrily to him.

"Shush!" I said, glaring at him, resisting the urge to smack the smirk off of his face.

"I mean, isn't anyone else hungry?" he said, a little louder. I glared at him again and decided to ignore him, straining to hear the end of the speech.

"And may I inform the first years that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students!" with that she sent a knowing look to James and his friends, "let the feast begin!" food appeared in front of us and James sighed, loading his plate so high that I couldn't see his face.

"Why did you have to talk through the whole speech, Potter?" I glared at James, taking a bit of everything from the platters around me.

"Don't pretend that you don't love my voice, Green" James said in reply, smirking through the chicken leg he was eating. I frowned in disgust and turned back to my own platter of food. It didn't take long until we were all leaning back and groaning, desserts piled high around us.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to eat again!" James said, holding his stomach.

"You say that every time," one of his friends said, grinning and punching his arm. I shook my head and looked up as Professor McGonagall stood.

"I'm sure you have all enjoyed the food! Now it is off to bed for you all! Remember that classes start tomorrow morning!" then she waved to the Prefect's, who stood and herded us to the Gryffindor common room.

"Niffler!" the prefect called out and the Fat Lady's portrait swung open, allowing us entry. We slipped up to our rooms, not waiting for the first years to get situated. Our trunks were laying at the foot of our beds and Rose grinned at me from the bed next to mine. Another muggleborn named Lucy and two other girls, Jill and Tracy, entered the room, laughing at something that someone had said at dinner.

"How was your guy's summers?" Jill asked, yawning as she slipped into her pajamas. Tracy shook her head as Lucy fell onto her bed, crawling in without even bothering to change.

"Too... Tired..." Tracy replied and within minutes we had all drifted off, full of food and happy to be back to Hogwarts for another year.


	4. First Day Back

**a/n: Well, hello all! The world didn't end, big surprise ;). Anyways, it's like 12 in the morning here and I'm majorly tired so this probably isn't the best I've ever written so sorry about that! But still have another story to update (my other fanfic, it's Hunger Games). **

**Anyways, I wanted to get this up as quickly as possible seeing as today/yesterday (seeing as it's that awkward part of the day where you don't know which to call it) was the first day of my break, I remember saying somewhere earlier that it was the 18th but I checked again and realized I was wrong. But you didn't come here to listen to me ramble on and on. So here's the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: As always, I am not J.K. so I sadly have no claim over Harry Potter **

Chapter Four: First Day Back

"Summer! Summer! Get up!" Rose shouted. I groaned and rolled over, how could she be so perky? It was too early to be awake. Before I could slip back into sleep, however, a large something flew into my bed and landed on top of me.

"Ok! Merlin's wand! I'm up, just _gerrof_ me!" I shouted, pushing against whoever was sitting on me. There was a snort and then the person shifted to the other side of the bed, allowing me to sit up. Lucy grinned at me from across the room and I rolled my eyes at her.

Just then the bathroom door opened and we stormed it, me rushing out of bed and past Lucy and Jill. Tracy, who had just come out of the bathroom, snorted at us and sat down on her bed. The door slammed shut behind me and I locked it with a smile.

Before long I was showered and out, racing down the stairs to meet Rose (who was currently showering) and Albus in the common room. Albus was sitting in one of the chairs and he looked up when I came down the stairs.

"Hey, Al," I said, still yawning from how early it was.

"Mornin'," Albus responded, "mornin' Rose," I turned, watching as she made her way down the staircase and came over to us.

"What are we waiting for? I'm just dying of starvation over here! Let's go!" she said, pulling me towards the portrait hole.

The great hall was already full with practically the whole school body, eating, waiting to get their timetables, and in some cases, sleeping.

"Oh! Bacon!" Rose rubbed her stomach and I laughed at the hunger written plain across her face. Minutes after we sat down Professor McGonagall came over and handed us our classes.

"Ugh, double potions first," Albus groaned, but I smiled, I was a natural at potions, unfortunately, Albus took after his dad's awful potion skills.

"I wonder who we have it with," Rose said around the food she was eating. I wrinkled my nose at her as James, Fred, and the other boy that had sat with us last night, I think his name was Luke, sat down on the Albus' other side.

"What do we have after that?" I asked Rose curiously.

"Well, then we have Transfiguration," she looked over my schedule thoughtfully, "then you go to Ancient Runes and I head to Divination..."

"They're both worthless classes if you ask me," James said, picking a piece of toast off of Albus' plate.

"Well, we didn't," I said, glaring at him angrily. Honestly, who did he think he was?

"I mean, we all know that the centaurs are all moony stargazers and Ancient Runes is just codswallop, who would want to learn that?" James continued and even Rose looked offended at this.

"Well, it's a good thing you don't have to take them then, huh?" I asked sarcastically, but he chose to ignore my in favor of the huge pile of food in front of him.

"Honestly," I muttered angrily, "does he ever stop eating?"

When the time finally came to head to potions Rose was practically bouncing off of the face of the earth in her excitement to see who we had it with. I was trying to tether her down and Al was trying to ignore the fact that he would be in potions in a few minutes time by burying his nose in a book. Rose jumped away from me again, bubbling over with perky attitude and let's-go-early-in-the-morning face.

"Al! A little help!" I practically shouted, finally giving up on Rose and letting her bounce around for a few minutes before she finally wore herself out and we could keep walking, he glanced at me apologetically and shot Rose a look, then kept reading.

When I saw that we had potions with the Slytherins I immediately glanced over at Rose, who was staring at Scorpius, who was staring back at her.

"If you're any more obvious about it then even Al will know before Halloween gets here," I told her and her cheeks flushed a deep pink as she quickly looked away from Scorpius. I laughed under my breath and Al, finally catching on that we were talking, looked up.

"What did I miss?" he asked, staring at Rose's pink face and my silently laughing one.

"Nothing," I managed between bouts of laughter, at this Rose's face only grew a deeper shade of pink and I could see Scorpius watching us from across the room. That's how they were the whole class too, watching each other from the corners of their eyes, faces turning pink when I caught them, or they simply caught each other's gaze. After that the rest of the day passed in a blur. We were assigned a three scroll essay in Transfiguration, a one scroll translation in Ancient Runes. After which I went to Charms and received a one scroll essay on the difference between the two spells we had begun working on. By the end of the day I was worn out and tired, ready to get to sleep, but apparently James had other plans. Just as I was finally drifting off a loud bang rang out through the air and the ground and floor shook. Bolting upright in my bed I shared a quick glance with Rose, Tracy, Jill, and Lucy.

"What was that?" Tracy asked quietly, as though she were afraid of the answer.

"Fred," Rose practically growled. My eyes narrowed to slits and I jumped out of bed and marched to the door, yanking it open impatiently. If Fred was involved then there was no doubt that James was too.

When I made it to the commons I didn't even recognize the room, paint was dripping from the ceiling in multi-colored globs and the walls were stained. In one corner a few fireworks were still lighting up at random times. As I watched a large glob of the paint fell from the ceiling and landed on my head, seeping into my hair. I turned until my eyes landed on Fred and James.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, JUST WHAT DID YOU DO?" I shouted, hands on my hips, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"Well, we thought the room could use a little brightening up," he said, his signature cocky grin spreading over his face.

"And you thought TWO in the BLOODY morning was an acceptable time for this?" I shrieked, my voice raising an octave. He winced and the grin slipped from his face for a moment before he brought it back again, looking down at me.

"You might want to wash that out of your hair," he laughed, looking over at Fred who was trying to make a silent escape up the staircase.

"Why-you-little-UGH!" I shouted, pushing on his chest, "And don't even THINK that you're off the hook for this Fred! I expected better of you!" By now a majority of the Gryffindor class had made their way down the stairs and was watching in interest. Another glob of paint fell on my shoulder and I winced, rubbing it and scowling when it turned almost putty-like against my fingers.

"Why did you even let him think about doing this, Fred? And Potter! I expect this room clean by morning!" I growled at him and his raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't even a prefect," he said calmly.

"Which is good, because I can't say what I won't do to you if it isn't," and with that I huffed up the stairs to take a shower, before slipping back into my bed for some much needed last minute sleep.

**a/n: I appreciate all reviews and thanks to everyone who has favorited, reviewed, and followed this story! You have no idea how much it means to me! Anyways, hopefully I can go sleep now ;) the things I do for you guys! Have a nice day/night, it would be so awesome if I could wake up tomorrow to some reviews from my lovely readers! *hint hint* **

**But really, thanks so much, I love every suggestion and review that I get from you guys :).**


	5. A Chance Meeting

**A/N: I'm back! Please don't kill me! I meant to update this sooooooo long ago but life just got in the way *waves fist at life*. It's been like a month since I've updated this *winces* but I bring to you the longest chapter to date and along with it I send you my sincerest apologies and hopes that you will forgive me soon. Luckily, I have the next seven chapters planned out and ready to be typed so hopefully *crosses fingers* I'll be updating sooner. I didn't originally plan it this way, trust me, I _definitely_ didn't plan it going in the direction it's going right now. Fair warning (you'll probably see the beginnings of it in this chapter) it will be getting a little bit darker... Or a lot. But bare with me, as one of my favorite quotes states "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." Anyways, you came here to read the update, not me rambling on and on, so go! I hope you enjoy :)**

Chapter Five: A Chance Meeting

When I walked down the stairs the next morning I was pleasantly surprised to see the common room spotless, not a sign of the paint from the night before. If I wasn't so tired as I walked down the stairs then I'd have wondered if I'd simply dreamed the whole thing. When I'd woken up just a few minutes ago everyone else had already left our room, a bit panicked I had looked quickly at the clock, only to see that I had twenty minutes until classes. That was just just enough time to get downstairs and eat.

I walked sluggishly down the stairs; I'd never been a morning person in the first place and the loss of crucial minutes of sleep was taking it's toll already. The Great Hall was quieter than usual and for a second I didn't realize why, then I saw that James and Fred were missing and Al and Rose looked a little worried. I slumped into my seat next to them.

"What's going on?" I asked, picking up a piece of toast and covering it in jam.

"Well, Professor McGonagall came in a few minutes ago and asked if she could talk to them for a minute... And, well..." she faltered, "she might have mentioned something about the Common Room incident last night. Apparently one of the students tipped her off about it last night," they both looked at me and I gave them a shocked look.

"You don't honestly think that I did that?" I asked, surprised to see that they looked completely serious.

"Well, it's no secret that you hate them pulling pranks, and I think everyone heard you this morning yelling your head off..." Albus trailed off when he saw the look I was giving him.

"As a matter of fact, it wasn't me. When I came downstairs the common room was completely clean, why would I turn them in after they actually did that?" I asked, spooning porridge into my bowl, "and besides, I'm not that bad," but the look on Rose's face said otherwise.

"Oh... I'm sorry for just-" Albus started.

"Al, really, it's fine, if I had been you I would've suspected that it was me too. It does seem like something that I would do huh?" I frowned, maybe I should try to be nicer to James.

However, later that day I remembered exactly why it was that James and I hated each other so much. As we were walking towards Transfiguration someone walked briskly past us and shoved past me, knocking my books to the floor. I saw Fred's bright red hair as I bent down to pick them back up and bit my lip to keep from saying anything.

"Thanks for ratting on us, Green, and I honestly thought that cleaning the room would make it up to you, apparently not," James said, as I picked up the last of my books and straightened I saw his face and had to restrain myself from recoiling; he had never looked at me with so much anger and hatred in his eyes.

"Why would you even want to make it up to me?" I asked, bristling, "last time I checked, you didn't listen to anything except your overly inflated ego!" James ground his teeth and his fists clenched slightly, Fred put a calming hand on his shoulder and, after a small shove on Fred's part, they walked away down the hall. "And it wasn't me, in case you were interested," I called after them, James paused in the hallway but I was already walking away with Al and Rose.

Seconds after we sat down our Transfiguration teacher, Professor Corner, walked in and waved her wand a bit excitedly. She looked to be about twenty with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. I could already tell that half the guys in the class were lusting after her.

"Okay guys," she said, her voice was high and clear, and clapped her hands together. "We'll be starting out class today with a simple warm-up. Transfiguring mice into teacups! Then we'll get on with some more of the fun stuff," she smiled brightly as mice zoomed out to our respective seats and everyone got started in transfiguring their mice.

"Honestly, who does he think he is?" I muttered, flicking my wand harder than necessary and causing my mouse's whiskers to snap with fire for a moment.

"I don't know," Al said, perfectly transfiguring his mouse into a teacup. I scowled and did the spell again, gentler this time, and the mouse turned into another teacup, resting next to Al's. Rose turned around in her seat, silver teacup sitting in front of her, and smiled encouragingly at me.

"He's only trying to get under your skin because he's mad that he spent an hour cleaning on his hands and knees before I reminded him that he could use magic, it isn't detention. He was in a right foul mood after that!" I laughed, grinning at Rose. As innocent as she seemed with those gentle smiles, she was just as mischievous as her brothers.

"You seriously sat there and let him wash it with magic for an hour?" I asked, laughing lightly.

"Well, he deserved it, splatter painting the room like that," Rose said calmly, though a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Though I was still chuckling, grinning broadly at our little "revenge" on James for his and Fred's prank, I felt a weird twinge of something. Almost like sympathy, or regret, but I brushed it off. I shouldn't feel bad about Potter, he was the one who decided to pull that prank in the first place. But... it wasn't just him, and we never even mentioned Fred in any of our discussions about their pranks, it was as though everything was Potter's fault, all the time. I shook myself, hard. It's not like Fred wasn't right there next to him cleaning, and not as if tonight he wouldn't be serving detention too.

"You alright there, Sunny?" Al asked, waving a hand in front of my face. "You kinda just zoned out, staring at the wall," my face turned a brilliant shade of red and I glared at him.

"Don't call me that," I said, but it was half-hearted and they could tell. Rose grinned triumphantly while Al smirked at me, and, in that moment, he looked so much like his brother that it shocked me. Even with Al's eyes being green, like his father, they bore such a striking resemblance to each other. It was kinda creepy.

The next hour of Transfiguration passed in a blur of rehashing old stories while we brushed up on our old spells and giggling, or laughing in Al's case as he would never be caught _dead_"giggling". After that the rest of the day went by even faster and before I knew it dinner was starting and Al was grinning at all the food that was laid out before us. Rose was rolling her eyes and I was laughing at the two of them, just like always. I ate a huge helping of dessert and not enough actual dinner (a bad habit that came from my immense sweet tooth), Rose made sure to eat her greens, and Al loaded up on sausage, pulled pork, chicken, steak, and meat pies. Often times he even came close to licking his plate clean.

We grabbed the best seats in the common room, right in front of the fire, and chatted until it was well past midnight and everyone else was up in their beds, sleeping.

XXX

_I was running, running fast, (sprinting actually) over the uneven landscape. I turned and twisted to avoid tree branches whipping back at me. Leaves and twigs got caught in my hair as I shoved through the growth. My foot got caught on a slightly raised tree root and I tumbled to the forest floor with a thump._

_Rising quickly I tried to run again, only to find that my ankle was twisted and sent a sharp stabbing pain through my leg every time I put weight on it. Doing my best to ignore the pain I hobbled forward, I had to keep going. Had to get away from them._

_"Summer!" shouted a familiar voice from somewhere in the distance, "Summer! Run, get away from here! RUN!" the voice sounded frantic. Instead of listening to the voice (I was still trying to figure out who it belonged to) I turned and ran towards it._

_That pain in my ankle was forgotten as the adrenaline surged through my system, making my heart pound like a jackhammer. All I knew was that I needed to get to that voice. I needed to help them. Save them._

_I hurtled through the trees, dodging the branches that clawed at my face better than I had all night, though I still got a few nice whips to the face. Ahead of me I could see an opening in the trees, light shone through the growing space. The spaces between the trees were larger here than they had been deeper in the forest so I must've been getting close to the edge. _Where_ was _I_? I thought. It struck me a little late that I also had no idea what I was running from, I just knew that I had to keep going. I slowed for only a moment before I heard the shouts again, it was definitely a man. Al? I thought, frantic, "Al?" I said, looking desperately around at the trees, as though they held some answer if only I could find it. "Where are you?" I shouted as I heard another scream of agonized pain rip through the air. _

_Just as I turned towards where I thought the screams seemed to be emanating from I was knocked to the ground by someone considerably larger than I was._

_"Where do you think you're going, Goldie?" the man sneered, his face was covered by some sort of charm that darkened the air around him, almost like a giant ski mask._

_"My hair is _red_," I spat back at him, which was obviously the wrong response. He growled out a laugh and fingered my hair thoughtfully._

_"A shame too, I thought it was so pretty. Oh well, the only way a doll like you live would be to join-"_

_"Never," I spat the word at him like it was a venomous snake. He grinned and raised his wand hand._

_"Such a pity to have to kill such a pretty thing like you, and they had such high hopes for you too," he muttered. Then his voice rose, strong and powerful. "Avada Kedavra!"_

I woke up in my bed with a scream. I was sweaty and my hair was sticking to the back of my neck, my hands were curled into tight fists at my side. I pushed aside the curtain that closed my bed in and walked to the window, shoving it open with more force than necessary. The air was cold and fresh, it smelled like rain, breathing deeply I leaned halfway out the window, ignoring my fear of heights for a moment as I let a cold breeze lift my hair from my neck.

"Sunny?" a groggy voice said and I turned to find that it was Rose, "was that you?"

"Shhhh," I murmured reassuringly, "it's alright Rosie, just a bad dream, you can go back to sleep."

"Mmmm'kay," she mumbled, her voice thick with sleep. Within a minute her breathing was deep and regular, she was fast asleep again. I did a quick inventory - the rest of the girls were still asleep - and then quickly left the room. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep after that and, as my stomach growled angrily at me, I realized that though I had eaten plenty at dinner the dream-running must've taken a lot out of me.

Slipping down the hallway I thought about how many statues were lined against the walls, how many paintings were full or empty, how many grumpy old bats yelled at me to "turn out that bloody light!" as I passed. I didn't think about the fact that I'd be sooo dead if a teacher caught me out, nightmare or no, I didn't think about who I'd been running from or why I'd been running from them, and I _certainly_didn't think about the fact that the people in my dream could be here right now, waiting for me to turn my back so that they could pounce.

I slipped past darkened classroom after darkened classroom, the steady oppression of the silence making my eardrums pound... Until they picked up on something else that definitely wasn't just Mrs. Norris making nightly rounds.

"Are you sure you're alright, Lil?" a voice asked, hard and cold as a whip.

"James," said someone - probably Lil - contritely, "stop being so overbearing and protective. I could have handled it on my own."

"Yeah, that's totally why it looked like you were getting beat to death," James said bitterly.

"I was not getting _beat to death_honestly, they walked away looking worse than I do!" Lil said grumpily.

"Who were they? You had to have recognized their faces!" James said suddenly, "I'll teach them better than to-"

"James." Lil said sharply, "I won't have you fighting my battles for me. And I was too busy beating their faces in to notice what they looked like, I didn't have time to get a profile of them."

"You could've taken a better look before you just launched into the fight!" James said.

"Yeah, and I could have said 'Hello boys-who-are-trying-to-pummel-me! Why don't you just hold that thought while I take a very accurate description of your faces to give to my over protective brother who will come after you and put you in the infirmary for a week, thanks!' because that totally would've worked out well! Use your head James!" Lil said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"If you see them again, or recognize them anywhere, will you promise to tell me?" James asked.

"If I think they're going to be a problem, yes, I will, but until then? No," I heard the creak of a door and, startled, I dashed quickly behind the nearest suit of armor. Lily walked out of the room, it was clear that she was angry in the way that she shoved her hair out of her face and leaned back against the wall for a moment, head in hands. Then she shook her head slowly, shoved off from the wall, and fast-walked down the hallway and towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

_It's strange_, I thought, _that I had a dream like that the night that some kids tried to beat up Lily_. I don't know why anyone would want to beat her up though. Everyone knew that because of her brothers (and who her parents and Aunt were) she was very well protected, and even without them around, she was quick with her charms and could give you the Bat Bogey Hex faster than you could say "Expelliarmus".

I turned, about to start heading down for the kitchens again, when I ran headlong into someone. Praying that it wasn't Filch or McGonagall I backed up with a quick "sorry" and looked up, almost smacking myself in the face. Of course, I'd forgotten that the classroom wasn't empty after Lily left, James was still inside which meant...

"What are you doing out this late, Green?" James asked, sounding almost surprised.

"Headed down to the kitchens," I said, trying to sound nonchalant and, by the way he was looking at me, failing.

"Breaking the rules for a little late night snack?" he asked, voice almost condescending.

"Well, at least I'm not out walking the corridors with no purpose whatsoever," I returned sharply, trying to act as though I hadn't just heard the conversation he'd had with Lily. He snorted.

"You're such an awful liar," he said, "you do know that right?"

"Good evening to you too," I said, shoving past him. At this point I just wanted to be anywhere but out in the open. Filch or McGonagall could walk past any second and then I really would be toast.

"Wait," he said, reaching out to catch hold of my arm as I passed, I stopped abruptly and turned to stare at him. He dropped my arm as though it had burned him and shuffled his feet for a moment. "How much of that did you hear?" he asked quietly.

"Enough," I responded, heading for the kitchens again, and this time he didn't stop me.


	6. Strange Occurrences

**a/n: Hey guys! ****Two updates within three days! ****Thanks for all the favorites and follows! It really makes my day :D I've worked really hard in order to get this chapter up as soon as possible so I hope you like it! I know that it's a little bit on the shorter side but I felt like if I had kept going on with it any longer it would have dragged a little bit so I apologize :/. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up sometime this weekend but no promises! Anyways, I've been forgetting to put my disclaimer (anything you recognize as the Hogwarts/Harry Potter you know and love belongs to J.K. Rowling, I just wish I was her) :O and now, continue on with the story!**

Chapter Six: Strange Occurrences

The week passed by in a blur of classes and assignments, this being our sixth year they gave us so many essays and assignments that it was normal to see classmates up until midnight or later trying to finish that one last piece of homework.

It was even worse for James and Fred, who's weekly punishment with Filch on Tuesdays and Thursdays put a very tight constraint on their homework time. James grew even snappier than usual and even Fred, who was normally cheery and could find the good in everything, was grumpy.

I decided that it was best to just avoid them until their punishment (of which they still blamed me for, and of which we also had yet to find the real culprit) was over. I was poring over a potions essay on the Draught of Living Death when James and a slightly disgruntled Fred appeared in the portrait hole.

"Where on earth have _you_two been?" asked a slightly put out seventh year whom I believe James was dating. I happened to be wondering the same thing as it was a Wednesday evening and they wouldn't have detention until tomorrow.

"Not now, Jules," James said impatiently and she sat back with a harrumph. James, eyes glittering with something I couldn't quite place, maybe excitement, ran over to where Al, Rose, and I were sitting. Rose looked up at him wearily while Al and I just ignored him altogether.

"Fred and I were just wandering down by the Room of Requirement," James started and all of us sighed, looking around he frowned, "come on you guys," he said pleadingly, "this is serious!"

"Like that time when you stopped dinner so that you could announce that you'd successfully caught Fred and Hannah snogging in a broom cupboard?" Rose asked doubtfully.

"Or the time that he called everyone away from homework to go Nargle hunting?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Yes!" James said excitedly, "I mean no! Just listen here for a minute!" we all sighed but looked up reluctantly, seeing that he had our full attention he went on, "ok, so we were wandering down by the Room of Requirement."

"Yes, we'd established that," Al said, scribbling something down on his parchment for Transfiguration. James glared at him before starting again.

"Anyways, so we were down there and we saw our friend Luke snogging Jenny Lightbody, _the_Jenny Lightbody!"

"_That's_what this is all about?" Rose said scornfully, "Those two have been seeing each other in secret for months!"

"Who's Jenny Lightbody?" I asked, feeling slightly out of the loop.

"No!" James exclaimed, ignoring me, "Stop interrupting! Wait, really? For months? And he hasn't even shagged her yet? What's bloody wrong with him?"

"Jenny's apparently this amazing snogger in their grade," Al answered me, a bored look on his face.

"The point of your story being?" Rose asked, and I silently agreed with her, desperately wanting to get back to my essay.

"We saw a strange man," James finished lamely.

"That's it?" Rose and I said incredulously.

"What?" James asked defensively.

"JAMES," we shouted, "we're in _Hogwarts_, you see what's considered 'weird' people every day!" he looked momentarily offended.

"No, I mean _weird_, even for a wizard. This guy was completely strange. Like that Canadian bloke that's famous in America, I think his name's Justin Bieber," Rose and I looked at him skeptically for a moment before waving for him to continue. Sensing that this conversation was going nowhere I looked back to my essay.

"He looked like he had really dark hair, but I couldn't really tell. He looked there and not there, like he was wavering. He almost looked like he was growing out of the shadows," his voice grew serious and I looked up at him in shock, never in my life had I known James Sirius Potter to be serious(**a/n: yes, the pun was intended :) ONWARD!)**, "he was doing something strange by one of the torches and then, before I could get too close, he opened the door to the Room of Requirement and went inside. I got it to open to what it had previously but when I went in it was just full of junk, like old stuff people didn't want, and he was gone. The man I mean. I even walked in a little ways but it was like he had just vanished into thin air."

I felt as though my face had gone pale, all the blood rushing from it, remembering my dream from the other night. How the man had seemed to appear out of nowhere and melt into the night around him.

"You alright there, Green? You look like you might faint," James said, his voice sounded condescending, but something else too. I couldn't place it. Shaking off thoughts of the dream I shook my head at them and smiled shakily. It was only a dream after all.

"Nothing," I said, though my voice didn't sound as strong as it normally did. James gave me a dubious look but didn't say anything. Was that even possible? To disappear into thin air? There was always an invisibility cloak, but those were always thought to be fake, rumors on the winds. Though it was said that Harry Potter had one in the time that he was at Hogwarts. So was it possible, invisibility cloaks aside, to disappear using magic?

"Where did you say the Room of Requirement took you?" I asked James, mainly out of curiosity, curiosity had always been my biggest flaw, "do you think that you could get back there?"

Everyone, including James shot me a weird look, for moment nothing was said until the silence got so unbearable (I had learned long ago that silence was the one thing I couldn't handle, I even had to play music while I was asleep) that I finally went on.

"I mean, there might be books or something there that he wanted to hide, the best place to hide something is in a room full of other useless stuff."

"That makes sense," Rose said slowly at the same time that James and Fred muttered, "of course, those two and their bloody books."

"Why would you want to go and search for a book that probably doesn't exist in a room filled with junk, to look for a spell that probably isn't real used by a man that nobody but James saw?" Fred asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?" I asked, surprised, "weren't you there with him Fred?"

"Sure, I was with him, but I didn't see the guy. James tried to point him out to me but all I could see was dimly lit hallway," Fred said, glancing between James and I.

"What, so he has x-ray vision now?" Al asked.

"Bloody hell, James, I swear, if you're pranking us you better tell me now or I'll hex you into the next century," I said, glaring at him.

"I'm not pranking you guys! I swear that I saw something!" James said, Rose and Al still looked skeptical but something in his voice made me pause, he sounded desperate, and his eyes held none of the mischievous gleam that it normally did when he was pulling something over on us.

"Alright," I said, looking back down at my Potions essay. There was another long silence in which I could feel everyone staring at me in shock. "What?" I said self-consciously, "have I got something on my face?"

"You believe me?" James asked, mouth gaping. Sighing I put down my Potions essay, the conclusion would have to wait until tomorrow, and stood up.

"Even if I didn't, it's an interesting story, and I'm always willing to search a new place for books. Why don't you lead us back to the room now?"

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, scrutinizing James' face.

"Well," Al said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "if Summer believes him then he has to be telling the truth, cuz he can't pull anything over on her."

It seemed like the trip down to the Room of Requirement took hours instead of the few minutes that I knew it did. We watched - Fred and Rose in impatience, Al and I in curiosity - as James paced three times in front of the spot where we knew the Room of Requirement would be. The door slowly formed, like bubbles rising out of the stone. James pulled the door open and waved us all inside, looking quickly around the hall before entering himself.

XXXXXX

The man in black watched as the five children entered the Room of Requirement. Malcolm had required that he followed the kids this night, though he didn't understand why. After he'd let the dumb one with ebony hair and brown eyes see him slipping into the Room of Requirement he knew it had only been a matter of time before the dumb one led the others there too.

A tall girl with shoulder-length curly vibrant red hair followed quickly after the other tall boy who had bright red hair (he'd seen this one with the dumb boy earlier), eyes lighting up as she caught sight of what lay behind the doors. There were two other boys that followed the girl inside, one was the one he'd seen earlier and the other looked as though he could be his younger brother. He was a bit on the shorter side with messy ebony hair and bright green eyes. There was only one other girl, she had long auburn-red hair that hung in waves down to her mid-back.

As the kids slipped into the room he slipped forward and stuck his foot into the closing door, squeezing in through the gap, and letting the door shut quietly behind him.

They were in the room that he had visited earlier, in order to lure that boy after him. Whatever they thought they were going to find here was pointless. Even if they found what he'd hidden... No, he couldn't let them come close to it. He had sworn to protect Malcolm's secrets, at least until the Mundis Sanguis was ready to share them with the world that is.

He still didn't know why Malcolm thought these kids were so important. Nothing about them _looked_very extraordinary. They just looked like a bunch of kids, exactly what they were. Malcolm had warned him not to underestimate their abilities though, so he was going to keep a close watch on everything they touched, looked at, pointed out. He would be ready, just like Malcolm said, for when the time came to strike. The time to either initiate them... or kill them.

"Whoa," said the girl with curly red hair said, turning in what looked like awe. For a second he thought that he saw her eyes pause on him but when she kept turning a second later he convinced himself that he was just being paranoid.

He stood there for a second longer before melting back farther into the shadows, settling himself in for a long night. It didn't look as though these kids were leaving anytime soon.

**a/n (I know, two... or three if you count the one up there ^ somewhere... of these in one piece?): Yes, creepy guy is following them, what is he up to? Well, you'll (hopefully) figure out who this guy is, and what the Mundis Sanguis is, and who Malcolm is in the next chapter (yeah, the next chapter is chalk full of information you're going to need!) I needed to add a little author's note on the end of this chapter because I needed to let you guys know that every time it switches into third person it's going to be the same person, the guy who we were following in this chapter. I'm also thinking about maybe throwing in some parts from Malcolm's PoV but I haven't decided yet, I guess it depends on how much of his background I end up giving you... But I'm getting ahead of myself :) I really need to learn to stop doing that... Thanks for reading!**


	7. A New Cult

**a/n: Alrighty you guys! I'm back! Sorry for the wait :( but here's a nice long chapter (4,000+ words! YAY!) for you all! It also has some pretty important information going on, so it's not just fluff, or any fluff really (sorry, I know, we'll be getting to that later). Also, a little hint for you guys, EVERYONE who is introduced in this chapter is going to be important to the story line later (even if they're only mentioned in passing). I'm majorly pumped for the next chapter so you can probably expect it up this weekend though I'm not making any promises. **

**Disclaimer: I DON'T own Harry Potter, if I did I would be writing another one about Jily... **

**Alrighty, I think I'm done on announcements. Onwards and enjoy!**

Chapter Seven: A New Cult

I woke up not to the squealing of the other girls in my dorm but to a random beam of sunlight and the sound of steady breathing. I blinked open my eyes slowly, yawning and sitting up. As I took in the tall mountains of junk around me and James, Fred, Al, and Rose asleep around me I sat up straighter, more alert. Last night flooded back to me, going to the Room of Requirement, where we still were apparently. Shit.

"Al!" I said, shaking his shoulder. His eyes flickered open and then he, too, sat upright in shock.

"We're not in bed," he said and I had to roll my eyes.

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that, Al," I muttered as I shook Rose and Fred awake.

"What time is it?" Fred groaned, rubbing his eyes and pushing James off of his bag, which he had apparently been using for a pillow. His head hit the table with a crack and he moaned, gripping it tightly.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" James asked, glaring at us.

"It's Thursday," Rose said and I looked skyward. Apparently it was going to be one of those days today.

"Shit," James said, mirroring the panic I'd been feeling for the past minute in one word. "Does anyone know what time it is?"

Fred, grinning mischievously, set off down the stacks of junk. A few minutes later he came back triumphantly holding an old clock in his hand.

"How do we even know that thing works?" I asked dubiously.

"It's magic," Fred said, "it's not like muggle clocks, it doesn't need batteries." He glanced down at the clock and blanched a little, swallowing nervously. "Well, they can't give us more detention than we already have."

"What time is it?" Al asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"One o'clock," he said and we all groaned, well, with the exception of James.

"Yes! We missed History of Magic, Fred!" he exclaimed and we all stared at him.

"What?" he said self-consciously. "Everyone knows that class is boring as hell."

"What class do we have right now?" I asked Rose and Al, praying that we had a teacher that wouldn't mind so much if we just showed up in the middle of class. Rose thought for a moment before smiling.

"Care of Magical Creatures, and Hagrid loves us, so we should be good," she said, and we smirked at Fred and James as they turned an unnatural shade of green when they said that they had double potions with Ravenclaw.

"Professor Badock isn't very forgiven, and you know he hates Gryffindor students," Rose said, not unkindly.

"Fred, what do you say for just skipping the rest of the period?" James asked and I turned to him in shock.

"You can't just skip potions!" I exclaimed, horrified that they were even considering missing even more classes than we had already. James raised an eyebrow at me.

"Can't we?" he asked, my jaw dropped.

"No!" I said again, "It-It's unethical! Not to mention how many points you could lose us for skipping!"

"What? Like all the points that we could all lose for skipping morning classes? Honestly, I don't think Corner would take points from her own house," James scoffed, if only we knew how wrong he truly was.

We were sitting in the Great Hall, heads down (well, Al, Rose, and I had our heads down. James and Fred were being their normal cocky selves.), when Professor Corner marched down the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Her normally pleasant faced was pulled down into a scowl so uncommon that the people she passed stopped and stared at her, food poised halfway to their mouths.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Weasley, Mr. Potter, Ms. Green," she said, voice practically begging one of us to mess with her. James and Fred laughed nervously until I kicked them both in the shins. Hard. "Come with me," and then she walked away briskly, not once looking back.

"Think it would get us in more trouble if we just stayed here?" James asked under his breath and Rose sent him a disparaging look before rising from the table and shuffling out. Al and I didn't hesitate to follow and after a minute James and Fred walked out too.

The walk to Professor Corner's office was long and silent, you could hear every time Rose's breath caught as she tried to wrap her mind around a teacher being mad at her, every time Al's shoes caught on the stone flooring because he simply didn't have the energy or will to lift his feet anymore, every time James ran his hand through his hair nervously, and everytime Fred tried to contain a sign. When we finally reached her office she shoved the door open and we shuffled past her, heads down in dejection - or trying to contain smiles in James and Fred's case.

"I am _very_ disappointed in you three," Professor Corner said, pressing her forefingers to her temples lightly.

"Hey! What about us!" Fred exclaimed and the scowl on her face deepened as she looked at them.

"I will deal with you two in a moment," she said, voice dead serious.

"Now," she started, turning back to us, "would _any_ of you like to tell me _why on Earth_ you weren't in your morning classes?" the classroom was silent for a moment that seemed to stretch on into forever before I finally broke.

"I'm really sorry Professor, it was all my fault really, see, there was something that I was really curious about and so we went down to the Room of Requirement and we must have been really tired because we fell asleep and then when we woke up it was one o'clock and we were all very disappointed in ourselves, you see, and so-"

"Ms. Green," Professor Corner said, silencing me with a look. "Would you, by any chance, wish to explain to me why you decided to go to the Room of Requirement in the middle of the night?" I swallowed rather loudly and James stepped up, head bowed.

"I told her about a strange man entering the Room of Requirement. I thought he simply appeared and disappeared into the shadows and Summer, being a really good student, simply wondered if something like that were possible. Since, as you said, it was after hours we didn't want to bother you with something as silly as that so we went down to the Room of Requirement to see if there was any books there about it, or to see if the man was simply still there." Professor stared at us in shock, frankly even I was staring at James in shock, though I was almost positive that it was for different reasons.

"You put your _lives_ at risk in order to see if it was simply possible to _disappear into the shadows_?" she asked us incredulously.

"I wouldn't say it was quite that dramatic, Professor," Fred muttered.

"Ms. Green, I am-" she paused for a moment before continuing, "I sincerely hope that this never happens again," I nodded at her words and took in a deep breath. "I'll be sending an owl home to your parents and you will serve a week's detention. You will report to Filch every other night at 7 o'clock sharp, starting tomorrow."

"But it wasn't her fault!" James broke in again and Professor Corner turned on him.

"And you two, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, it seems like every week you return to my office for some offense or another. In fact, Mr. Potter, don't you still have detention tonight from the last time?" James shuffled feet and attempted a smile.

"It's only because I love seeing you all worked up, Professor," James said lightly and her mouth twitched up a little at the corners.

"There's simply nothing else I can do, you two will each serve a week's detention also, but yours will be nightly at 7 o'clock. You two will also receive letters home and thirty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"_Thirty_?" James and Fred gasped in shock.

"Each." she said shortly, her voice even and reproving, she then turned to Al and Rose, ignoring James and Fred's mutters of protest. "As this is both your first offense and it wasn't your idea," she shot me a look at this, "you will be docked ten points from Gryffindor. You may leave."

I turned and bolted, I could feel the tears coming and I didn't want to be near anyone else when they finally started falling. I heard someone call my name but I ignored them as I turned quickly down a corridor and tears blurred my vision. _Why are you crying over something so simple as this_, I thought to myself, leaning against a wall. _It's not like it's a huge deal. You'll just be completely letting down your parents, not to mention that Professor Corner is so disappointed in you, and it's only a little detention_. I brushed angrily at the tears on my face and sternly ordered myself to stop being so melodramatic.

I took a deep breath before starting back to the common room, Al and Rose were there but James and Fred were gone, already heading to detention. I looked at them in surprise.

"I can't believe they're already going, normally they leave two minutes before it starts," I said and Rose and Al shared a quick glance.

"I don't think they wanted to face you yet," Rose said meaningfully.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean," I asked, glancing between the two of them, they obviously knew something that they were leaving out.

"Nothing," Al said quickly, "Nothing at all, hey Rose, fancy a game of Exploding Snap?" I stared at them in confusion.

"What's going on?!" I said loudly as they started playing a _very_ Explosive round. It soon became clear that they had no intention of answering me so I went upstairs with a humph. I would figure out a way to get it out of them somehow.

XXXXX

Marcus sat across from him tossing his wand from one hand to another. _He really is awfully young to be leading this sort of group_, he thought, eyeing the boy in front of him. Marcus was tall and built, and though he was good-looking (his blonde hair, brown eyes, full lips, and symmetrical features had been enough to have a slew of girls wanting to go out with him when he had been at Hogwarts only a simple 8 years ago) his permanent scowl marred his features horribly.

"So, you are telling me that..." Marcus trailed off, staring at him expectantly.

"That the boys are loyal to their sibling and their friend, and I think one of them fancies her."

"Are you quite certain, Aurelius? We don't want any mistakes." Aurelius nodded his head once and kept his face clean of all emotions.

"I'm quite certain-"

"Sir," a woman's voice interrupted them, "Jain and Porter require your attention. They have information about what you told me earlier."

"A moment please," Marcus said and disappeared out the door. Aurelius propped his up unceremoniously up on top of the wooden table and waited impatiently, sighing every few minutes while tossing his wand up in the air and catching it on its way down. What seemed like hours later Marcus finally reappeared and Aurelius shifted a little in his seat, sitting up straighter and tucking his wand into the waistband of his jeans.

"Now," Marcus started, staring mercilessly at Aurelius, "you're sure, positive, about what you saw?" he asked, wanting more than anything for it to be true, for him to finally be able to wreck the vengeance on those purity freaks who had so horrifyingly and destructively taken over his world when Voldemort had risen to power. Sure, he hadn't quite been alive yet, in fact, he wasn't even alive until Voldemort's reign was closing, falling in on itself. But he would make the world into a better, safer, place. He would finish was needed finishing. He would clear the last pureblood families off of the earth and those who got in his way, or stood against him, could go with them. They should be bowing down to him! Cheering his name! He would bring about a new age of compassion and freedom from the judgement of the pureblood status, he would make equal every witch and wizard across the globe.

"100%," replied Aurelius, though he was anything but. He could only hope that the children would be as predictable as they had appeared, or he would pay the price.

"Then bring her here, and if she won't come willingly find a way to make her. Even if we can't recruit her, it will bring our enemies closer," Marcus said, running his fingers over the polished wood, "close enough to crush," he slammed a fist down on the table.

Aurelius stood, nodded once to Marcus, and left the room in a swirl of robes. As he walked down the hall he reached out to the shadows and they embraced him, drew him in and, to anyone else, he was as good as invisible.

XXXXX

The rest of the day passed quickly enough, James and Fred were avoiding me; and Al and Rose wouldn't tell me what was going on. When 6:45 eventually rolled around James, Fred, and I slowly stood and made our way down the empty corridors together.

"Are you two always this quiet when you're heading to detention?" I asked, genuinely curious. James and Fred raised an eyebrow at each other and Fred smirked.

Swinging his arm over my shoulder he said, "only for you, love," I thought I felt James stiffen slightly beside me for a moment but I couldn't be sure and I shrugged it off as being stressed, we were all under a lot of pressure, especially with Fred and James being in NEWT year, maybe he was just finally maturing enough to see that.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I mumbled half heartedly but Fred only laughed and we continued the rest of the walk to the dungeons in silence. Filch and another boy, a beefy sixth year that I thought I'd seen hanging around with the Ravenclaw kids, stood outside one of the rooms in silence. Once we had finally reached where they were standing Filch muttered something about kids always being tardy these days and cleared his throat.

"You know what you've done, and now you're in detention," Filch said gruffly, "right then, Potter and Green, you two will be cleaning out the potions room, there was an unfortunate accident there earlier. Weasley and Frederick, you two two will be cleaning the trophies," Fred moaned slightly but shuffled off towards the trophy room anyway, James and I slowly made our way towards the potions classroom too, "and no magic!" Filch yelled after us.

"Is he always that crabby?" I asked James quietly and he snorted.

"He's normally worse," the silence that followed James' statement was thick enough to suffocate an ox and stretched on and on. It continued long after we entered the room and long after we'd started working, or at least _I_ started working on the stains on the floor.

I huffed and sat up, glaring at James while I shoved a piece of my hair out of my face.

"Are you going to be any help at all? Or are you just going to sit there?"

"I'd prefer to just sit here if that's fine by you," he said with a smirk and I returned to scrubbing the floor vehemently. After a minute I sat up again, the stains from what looked like an exploded cauldron were just not coming off.

"You know, this would go a lot quicker if you would just help," I snapped.

"But that would take all the fun out of watching you struggle," James said, cocky grin in place. I vaguely wondered if anyone would notice if I drowned him down here.

"You are such a prick," I growled, glaring at him. He laughed and turned his head a little to the side.

"I think you missed a spot, Green," he said and I stood up grouchily.

"Well, why don't _you_ have a go at it then," I said, staring him down, drowning him in the bucket of water at my feet was becoming more and more appealing.

"Are you asking for me help?" he asked, trying to suppress his grin but failing.

"Hardly," I said with a snort.

"No need to be so touchy," he said, his smile finally slipping a bit at the edges.

"No need to be an insufferable prick," I replied and he raised a hand to his heart in mock hurt.

"Have you ever considered asking anyone for help for once in your life, Green?"

"Not when you're the one I'd be asking, Potter."

"Have you ever wondered if maybe that's the reason you never have a date to Hogsmeade?" James asked tartly and I sucked in a breath. Rather unceremoniously, I picked up the bucket of water and dumped it on him. He spluttered for a moment before glaring at me.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" he shouted, trying to wring the water out of his clothes.

"Being an insufferable, cocky, pigheaded twat!" I cried, aiming a kick at his shins, "would you bother getting _off_ your lazy arse and _helping_?"

"Why should I?" he asked moodily.

"Because this is all your bloody fault anyways!"

"If you hadn't been stupid enough to say this was your idea then you wouldn't be here right now, so you have no one to blame but yourself!" I growled in my throat, I hated it when he was right.

"But if you hadn't told me about that creepy man-" I started.

"Don't try to put this back on me, Green! No one forced you to suggest going back to the Room of Requirement!"

"If I hadn't then you would've!" I shouted back and his hands gripped together at his sides. As he opened his mouth, probably with some smartass retort, Filch, followed by Fred and the Ravenclaw boy,opened the door.

"Times up," he said, looking greatly disappointed by this fact.

"Thank God," I said, throwing my hands up and stalking towards the door.

"Don't act so relieved, Green, someone might catch on," James called out.

"Catch on to what? That your head is so large I don't think it would fit up your arse if someone hit it with a sledgehammer?" I grumbled.

"You're such an arrogant little-" James started but I interrupted him.

"Don't you talk to me about arrogance, Potter! If you looked it up in the dictionary, the definition would be you," I snarled, turned back to him.

"Really? I thought the definition was something along the lines of someone with proud contempt of other; lordliness; haughtiness; and self-assumption." James responded, I opened my mouth to say that that was the exact definition of _him_ but was cut off by Fred.

"As much as I'd love to sit here and listen to you two argue all night I'd really prefer if we could get to bed? I'm beat." James and I exchanged a glare but kept silent for the majority of the walk back to the common room. James still grumbled once or twice as his robes were still soaked through. I'd gotten ahead of Fred and James, which was fine by me as they were talking about something in hushed tones that they obviously didn't want me to here. I reached the portrait of the Fat Lady only to discover that she wasn't there.

"Forget the password, Green?" James called up to me from where he and Fred were walking up.

"No, the Fat Lady's gone and disappeared," I replied.

"No need to be ashamed, remember what I said earlier," he called out and I thought I heard Fred mutter "is _that_ what got you drenched to the bone?" before they finally made it to the portrait hole too.

"Forget the password, Potter?" I asked mockingly, scanning the nearby portraits to see if the Fat Lady was anywhere nearby.

"Oh go tell somebody who gives a rat's arse, Green," James replied snarkily.

"Oy! Someone open the portrait hole before it turns into world war three out here!" Fred shouted loudly and they waited as footsteps finally approached the hole.

XXXXX

The sight that Rose Weasley recieved when she opened the portrait hole was one to tread carefully upon, she'd been stuck portrait hole was one to treat carefully upon, she'd been stuck in many similar positions before. Fred stood between James and Summer, looking worn out and annoyed, James was sopping wet and she could see the trail of water he had left in the hallway, his face was pulled down into a deep scowl, and Summer was standing, arms crossed over her chest, and a considerably dangerous expression on her face. Her I-want-to-kill-James-Potter-and-feed-him-to-the-giant-squid face.

"Might we actually make it inside, Rose?" James said irritably, wanting to get inside the common room as quickly as possible.

"Yes, alright, alright," she said, deciding that it would be the best idea to just comply with their wishes so she didn't end up with her feet in tubs of water or whipped cream all over her face.

She walked back to the chairs they'd acquired by the fire where Al was sitting quietly, finishing up an essay. Just as Summer was about to grab a seat next to Rose, James slipped in and stole it.

"Potter," Summer growled, anyone in their right mind would've just given up then and found another seat, but not James.

"What, does the chair have your name on it?" Summer smirked and pulled out her wand and one simply wave later embroidery stitched itself across the chair in gold, reading: Summer Green.

"Good thing you asked because, as a matter of fact, it does. Now will you _move_?" Summer growled. James finally got up and walked up to the boy's dormitory.

Rose watched him go with a small smile, remembering the conversation that she'd walked in on yesterday.

"What're you smiling about?" Summer asked through a yawn, stretching her feet out so that the fire could warm them up. Rose turned to her and smiled at her half-asleep friend, ever since first year they had always been so close and, while her friend was great at giving friendship advice and knowing when something was wrong, she positively sucked at noticing how so many boys followed her around hoping that they'd have a chance with her.

"Nothing," Rose replied softly, watching her friend fall asleep in front of the fire. She turned back to her work, deciding to let Summer be for a while longer.

**a/n: What's going on with James huh? I'd also like to do a brief thank you to EVERYONE who has Reviewed, Followed, or Favorited this I LOVE YOU ALL. Reviews are better than warm cookies and hot chocolate! Yumyum! **


	8. Hogsmeade

**A/N: Alright you guys, the formatting is being all weird on this chapter for some reason, apologies for that, also, sorry it took me so much longer than planned to get this up! I'd also like to thank my friend (you know who you are!) who badgered me every day to update this fanfic, otherwise it probably would've taken even longer than this. Thanks to EVERYONE who has Reviewed, Favorited, or Followed this, I love you all! Alright, long chapter for you, it was 10 pages on my computer so... Here it is! Hope you enjoy! (P.S. Reviews are lovely, I truly do love hearing back from you on my writing, maybe tell me your favorite character so far? A favorite part or one you think could use more work?)**

Chapter Eight: Hogsmeade

One of the major plus sides of being a muggle-born was definitely the fact that I couldn't receive Howlers. Sure, I got a very angry letter from my parents, or more my dad really, that I had no intention of replying to any time soon, but James, Al, Fred, and Rose definitely had it worse this time.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!" the howler screamed and all our hands clapped over our ears, Fred and Al (Hermione, who was displeased but didn't find it necessary to publicly humiliate her daughter, and Ron, who just thought the whole situation was rather funny, had simply sent Rose a letter) were staring at their Howlers in a mix between loathing and fear. Fred opened his, quickly followed by Al, and the Great Hall rang with screaming accusations. Al's finished up first as his was mainly a very subdued declaration of "don't you dare do this again, Albus Severus". Fred and James' letters, however, went on for a good five minutes both finishing up with a "honestly, you would think that you would learn".

"And you'd think that they consulted with each other before making these," Fred and James laughed, returning to their bacon and eggs as though nothing had happened. I was surprised that Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Potter hadn't ruined their voices by now, with how many Howlers they sent each year.

"Here," Rose laughed, "read this," and she passed her letter over to me.

_Dear Rose,_

_I know that you haven't grown up with the best examples to follow as James and Fred are always getting into mischief and Uncle Harry, Fred, and George were always wandering around, using secret passages. Ron and I were even quite the troublemakers, but that does NOT give you permission to wander around the school after hours and falling asleep in the Room of Requirement!_

_Your studies are very important! I know that I sound like Uncle Percy but you need to focus on your schoolwork, you leave all the pranking to your cousins._

_Sincerely,_

_Mom_

_I rolled my eyes at Mrs. Weasley (though she was right on a few levels) and flipped to the second letter._

_Dear Rosie,_

_What's all this rubbish about no pranking? You only have sixth and seventh years left for getting up to mischief. Maybe you can finally get McGonagall to retire, we all know she's getting on a bit. (Your mom is reading this over my shoulder and tells me that that is not appropriate to be saying about your Head Mistress but come on, it is true) Anyways, how are you Rosie? You're beating that Scorpius boy in classes right? Have you hexed any Slytherins? Remind Fred that he said something about sending Uncle Harry and George a flaming toilet seat._

_Tell James to give Filch's cat a good kick for me. Tell Albus good job on his first time losing points for Gryffindor, and tell him not to feel bad about it, Uncle Harry, your Mom, and I lost 150 at once one time. Give Summer a hello and good job too._

_Sincerely,_

_Dad_

_P.S. Rose, honey, don't listen to your Dad, you know how he can get._

_P.S.S. I don't get like anything! Oh, and tell James and Fred that they still have a long ways to go if they want to beat Uncle Fred and George._

_P.S.S.S. Ron! Don't encourage them!_

_P.S.S.S.S. Why shouldn't I? We were just as bad as them! With the 3rd floor corridor, the Chamber of Secrets, that dragon. Did I ever tell you about the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, Rosie?_

_P.S.S.S.S.S. Ronald Weasley! Don't put ideas in our daughters head!_

_P.S.S.S.S.S.S. It's not like they could get in anyways, they have to know Parseltongue._

_P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. That didn't stop you from getting in there._

_P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. Ahhh, good memories. Love you, Rosie!_

_P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. You're impossible! Love you, sweetheart!_

I laughed and passed the letters back to Rose, "you're parents are crazy," I said and she giggled.

"What else is new?" she asked. Jill and Tracy slipped in next to us then and Jill sighed, staring off to the Slytherin table. Rose shot a quick look her way before following her line of vision to a group of what looked like 6th year boys.

"Felix is so..." she paused, looking for the right word.

"Dreamy," Tracy finished, giggling and leaning against Jill, sometimes I thought those two were a little too boy obsessed but they were great people. I laughed.

"Who's Felix?" I asked as Rose just rolled her eyes and returned to her breakfast.

"Felix _Jain_," Jill said, as though this cleared anything up. After a moment she sighed and continued, "His dad's only one of the richest people right after the Malfoys and the Potters of course. He runs some big company or other, doesn't he own like a broomstick factory too?" she asked Tracy and when she shrugged she started talking again. "Anyways, he's seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team, completely fit, totally smoking hot, and like all the girls in Hogwarts want to go out with him." Rose snorted derisively.

"Obviously not, Summer didn't even know who he was," she said and Jill rolled her eyes.

"That's because she's too preoccupied with James, and besides, I bet the only reason he hasn't asked you out yet is because James would put him in the hospital." Tracy said flippantly.

"_What_?" I said, sounding slightly strangled. People thought that James and I had something going on? It was beyond the realms of imagination, it was absolutely stupid.

"Well, based on the other girls that Felix's gone out you're totally his type," Tracy said, looking at me a little strangely.

"No, the bit about me and James, what's- I'm mean we're not- it's completely stupid- rubbish is what it is," I stuttered, still sounding slightly strangled. James, Fred, and Al decided to show up then and Tracy smiled as James sat down across from me. I looked down and took a sip of my pumpkin juice in order to distract myself.

"Of course you're not going out with him darling," Jill said with a wink. James looked at her curiously.

"Summer's not dating whom?" he asked and I choked on the sip of juice I'd taken. I slammed my hand on the table making everyone jump a little.

"No one," I said, trying to stop coughing, "I'm dating _no one_," I shot a glare at Jill and Tracy and thankfully they said nothing, just laughed a little and slipped into their own conversation. I finally stopped choking on the juice and for a moment we all sat in silence, me stabbing at my sausage with more aggression than normal, until Fred broke the silence.

"What was that all about?" he asked, looking around at us.

"Nothing," Rose and I said at the same time, I was glad that she wasn't going to help them tease me about what Jill and Tracy had just said. They were all bonkers anyways.

The morning passed in a blur and when we got to charms Professor Thomas smiled warmly at us and we looked nervously around the classroom, all of the desks had been pushed up against the edges of the room and we all filed into the space in the middle of the room, I twirled my wand between my fingers nervously.

"Professor? What are we doing today?" I asked and he smiled.

"Today you'll be mastering the patronus charm. It's one of the most powerful spells you'll ever cast, it can perform any number of things, which you'll be writing a parchment on for homework," there was a groan and he waited until we were quiet again, "however, right now you need to think of the happiest, warmest memory you have. Let it fill you up. That's what you need to perform a patronus. Now, would anyone like to guess as to why the death eaters couldn't perform this particular spell?" I raised my hand and he nodded at me.

"Well, could it be the fact that they didn't have any happy memories to choose from?" I said and it partially turned into a question, Professor Thomas nodded at me again.

"Yes, that could most certainly be part of it, now, what you need to do is..." he walked up through the wand movement and reminded us to think of our happy memory and then he told us to go ahead and get started.

I stood with Jill, Tracy, Rose, and Al, struggling for a moment to choose a memory. I finally chose the one where I met my first new friends at Hogwarts and, like Professor Thomas had instructed, let it fill me up. I struggled the whole class period with the spell, watching as Rose accomplished hers: a Phoenix, as Jill finally managed to get it: a Terrier, as Al whooped when his finally sped around the room: a Weasel, and as Tracy managed a silvery mist that spewed from her wand. I eventually got the same but as Tracy's started taking on a little bit more form, looking rather like a large blob, mine remained hazy and thin, like a barrier. I left the room discouraged and Al and Rose tried to cheer me up in vain.

"I'm probably the only one who didn't get theirs," I muttered, _how come I couldn't get the spell right?_

"That's not true," Al said, smiling reassuringly at me, "you forgot that Tracy still has a ways to go on her's too."

"Yeah, but her's is at least starting to take shape, mine is still just... Ugh," I said, gesturing wildly with my hands.

"You'll get it eventually, Sunny," Rose said calmly, smiling at me, "and remember that it took Uncle Harry forever to get his down and he was only two years younger than us!"

"Only two years _younger_," I scoffed and as I walked away I heard Al murmur, "I don't think that helped the situation, Rosie."

After the rest of our afternoon classes and an hour long nap I decided to make an appearance at dinner, figuring that if I didn't Al and Rose would just come track me down anyways. Dinner was pretty normal until Jill leaned towards me halfway through, an eager expression on her face (her and Tracy were always ones for gossip) as she stared intently at the Slytherin table.

"Why's Felix walking over here?" she muttered and James turned in his seat.

"He better not be thinking about talking to any Gryffindors, I mean, everybody knows that they only date other people with black hearts."

Rose whipped around and glared at him, so I said what I could practically hear her thinking from beside me, "Don't be such a prick, James, I'm sure that not all of them are bad. Just like not all Gryffindors are honorable, or all Hufflepuffs are wussies, or all Ravenclaws are stuck-up," just because he was so involved in his stupid prejudices didn't mean that we all had to hear it.

"Don't act all high and mighty yourself, you prejudice against people too, you're always prejudiced against me," he retorted angrily.

"That's true, nobody's perfect, but at least I don't shove my prejudices down other people's throats," as I finished talking Felix made it to our table and he stopped awkwardly behind me so I turned around, craning my neck to see his face. Jeez, I thought as he stared down at me, _he's taller than I thought he was._

"Summer?" he asked and I nodded. "Well, I was wondering if, since the Hogsmeade trip is Saturday. Well, I was wondering - and this definitely doesn't mean you have to, I mean, I'd like you to but." he stopped and sighed, "will you go to the Hogsmeade trip with me?"

I felt someone kick the back of my leg and I shot a glare over my shoulder, I heard Jill and Tracy murmuring their approval and I shrugged. Nothing bad could come of going out on one date with him, maybe I'd even like him.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun, what time did you want to leave?"

"I was thinking meet here at 9 o'clock," he said and I internally cringed at the earliness of the time he had picked but nodded and he walked away slowly, laughing and smiling with his friends.

"Why did you say yes to that prick?" James asked scornfully. I huffed, glared at him, and stomped my way to the dormitories calling, "Jealous, Potter?" over my shoulder as I went.

When we got to detention later that night Filch was grinning maliciously at us. Fred and the Ravenclaw kid were already gone and I looked nervously at a clock, wondering if we were late.

"We're right on time," James muttered and I grimaced at him, how had he known what I was going to ask?

"You'll be cleaning out the second floor girl's bathroom today," he said.

"But I can't go in there, it's a _girls_ bathroom!" James said.

"That'll be the least of your troubles, boy," he said.

"What's that mean?" I asked, but he ignored me and murmured something to Mrs. Norris as we walked away to the lavatory. When we reached it I groaned.

"What is it?" James asked curiously while I eyed the bathroom wearily.

"That's _Moaning Myrtle's_ bathroom," I said and James looked between the damp floor outside the bathroom and me.

"And that's..." he trailed off uncertainly.

"A very bad thing," I finished and heaved a sigh, "come on, we better get on with it or we'll never finish. Myrtle has a way of... Interrupting your work."

We slowly made our way down into the bathroom, me going first, and when I dropped to the ground water rushed around my ankles and into my shoes. I made a strangled sound as the water dampened my socks and lifted a foot out of the water.

"Afraid of a little water?" James asked as he landed in the soaking bathroom with a splash.

"Ohhhh, students come to have a cry?" Myrtle asked.

"No," James muttered quietly and she glared at me.

"Come to tease poor Myrtle? Nobody cares about poor, weeping, moaning Myrtle," she asked her voice strained and whining, "Who's come into my bathroom?"

"James Potter," James said and Myrtle grinned.

"Ohhhh, any relation of Harry's? Did he mention me? He was very brave, you know, coming in here to fight the monster. He found the entrance all by himself," she said and James frowned.

"The entrance to what?" I asked and Myrtle shot me a glare before wandering over to her toilet.

"How should I know?" she said scornfully, "nobody ever tells me anything. All I know is that he and his friend came running in, wanting to know about how I died. Nobody'd ever asked me that, so of course I answered-"

"How _did_ you die, Myrtle?" James asked, it seemed curiosity had gotten the best of him.

"Well, I had come in here crying because Olive Hornby was teasing me and I heard a voice so of course I opened the door to tell them to go away and then, I died," we must have looked confused because she grinned and shrugged, "the last thing I remember seeing were a pair of bright yellow glowing eyes from over there," at that she gestured towards the sinks, I trudged over and started looking them over. How could anything big enough to kill her have come through the sinks?

"Harry was over by that one," Myrtle remarked suddenly, "when he said something awfully strange, it sounded like a different language." James walked up behind me as I leaned onto the edge of one sink, groaning.

"There's nothing here, Myrtle," I said and she floated off, muttering something about people never believing her. James was looking around the edges of the mirrors while I played with the knobs of my sink, there was nothing special about this bathroom, was it possible that Myrtle was just playing a prank on us? The knob that was I was tugging on was stuck and as I leaned closer, trying to get it to turn on, my breath caught in my throat.

"James," I said breathlessly. The sinks! Of course! The sinks were connected to the plumbing, which was big enough to get fairly large animals, and if what I was thinking was right, snakes around the palace undetected. Harry speaking a different language, the snake on the faucet, this had to be the _Chamber of Secrets_ that Harry had saved Ginny, his wife now, from in his second year. I jumped as I realized that James was right behind me, having been too caught up in my discovery to notice when he walked over. "I think Myrtle witnessed Harry discovering the Chamber of Secrets in-" I was cut off by a loud scream from the corridor outside the bathroom.

My head snapped up and James and I both ran for the door, I got there first and breathlessly appeared in the hallway, looking around for the cause of the disturbance. When my eyes finally lifted upwards my hand flew to my mouth and I had to stop myself from screaming.

What looked like two fourth years, both girls, were hanging upside down from the ceiling. Written on the wall behind them in what looked like blood was the message: Pure blood will be tainted or spilled. I gasped and involuntarily took a step backwards and accidentally stepped onto James' hand, he groaned and I lifted up my foot as he moved his hand away gingerly.

"What the bloody hell was that for..." he trailed off as he looked up and saw what I had spotted moments earlier. "Oh..." he finished lamely, looking around the corridor, trying to see if anyone was still around.

"W-we should go get McGonagall," I stammered, edging nervously away from the corridor, just because I was a Gryffindor didn't mean I wanted to hang around an abandoned corridor where we had just found two students hanging from the ceiling, and the fact that James seemed nervous too didn't exactly inspire confidence.

"Yeah," he murmured, grabbing me around the wrist and pulling me towards her office, "we should."

As we rounded the corner I ran straight into someone and this time I did scream, the person I had run into flinched and pulled away.

"Felix?" I asked, sucking in a deep breath, trying to calm my rattled nerves.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking between us and I explained what we had seen in hurried tones. I was describing the kids when Felix interrupted me.

"And the writing? What did it say?" I thought I saw a flash of impatience go through his eyes but it was gone before I could tell for sure and I shifted in place, anxious to get to McGonagall's office.

"We didn't mention any writing..." James said, eyeing Felix as though he'd rather be kissing a flobberworm than having a civilized conversation with him.

"I saw it from here," Felix muttered, turning to me as I answered his question.

"Pure blood will be tainted or spilled." I murmured, "and we really need to see Headmistress McGonagall about this, she'll know what to do." Felix nodded once.

"I'll go get her, you two stay here and detain any student that walks down this hallway. If anyone looks suspicious at all, we'll have Headmistress McGonagall question them." Felix said, then he turned and hurried away down the hallway, leaving James and I alone trying not to stare at the bodies that taunted us as they swung lightly, as though in a breeze. What seemed like hours, but was truly only moments, later McGonagall hurried down the hallway, looking as though she had just been pulled out of bed.

"Oh dear," she murmured as she saw the students. With a simple flick of her wand she lowered the students to the floor and summoned Filch, who appeared seconds later wheezing but otherwise ready for duty. "Make sure no students make it down this hallway this morning, the other Professors and I will have to thoroughly investigate this, oh, and Mr. Potter, Ms. Green, would you mind making sure these two get to the hospital wing? I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be able to whip something up for them in no time." James and I nodded and levitated them down the hallway.

"I don't trust Jain," James said as soon as we were out of earshot and I gave him a look that clearly stated that I was not amused.

"You do realize I agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him right?" I asked bitingly.

"Doesn't mean I have to like him," James muttered, "in fact, I'd prefer-"

"You'd prefer that I didn't go right?" I cut him off sharply, stopping in the middle of the hallway and rounding on James.

"I didn't say that-" he started but I cut him off again.

"You just as well did. I'm not breaking off my date with Felix just because you don't believe that he could see the writing from where he was - which is a perfectly valid excuse if you ask me - so don't even bother," with that I turned on my heel and walked the rest of the way to the hospital wing alone, leaving James standing far behind me.

The next morning arrived with singing birds, bright sunshine, and unseasonally warm weather, which was enjoyed by all.

I met Felix at the door at 9, like he'd requested, and we walked to the Three Broomsticks where I got a butterbeer to help me wake up while we talked. I learned that he had a little brother and sister - twins - who would be first years next year and an older sister who worked in the Ministry. His parents had both been sorted into Slytherin and his mother was a Healer while his father worked in the Quidditch industry, which must explain why he loved Quidditch so much.

He was Captain of the Slytherin team this year and played as his team's seeker. We swapped stories of our first pets (mine a cat named Kitty, his a dog name Shadow) and everything else that we could possibly think of.

When we had finally finished we strolled through the rest of the village, stopping to laugh at a group of fourth years who were googling at Zonko's products and holding hands as we slowly made our way back to the castle.

When we finally got back Felix shuffled his feet as he looked down, "today was fun," he said, looking up at me with a smile.

"Yeah, it was," I said, returning his smile.

"Do you... Think you'd want to do that again? There's sure to be something else - Quidditch or another Hogsmeade trip - soon, and there's always a trip to the kitchens if you want," I laughed and his smile grew.

"I'd love to," I said and he pulled me into a hug, and then, before I knew what was happening, his lips were on mine. My hands went up to his hair and his traveled down my back slowly, then, much to my disappointment, he pulled away with a smile.

"See you tomorrow," he said, and then he was gone. A hand travelled up to my mouth, where it still tingled from our kiss, as I made my way back to the Common Room in a daze. I was still smiling when I fell asleep that night.


	9. Cunning Devices

**a/n: okay you guys, I apologize profusely for the wait. I'm also sorry about how short this chapter is but it helps me set up where I need to go in the next chapters. You should thank one of the readers for her... ****_persuasion_**** in posting this chapter update tonight or you probably wouldn't have gotten an update for another week. So a big THANK YOU to her. That being said, I didn't get to have my beta go over this so there may be some mistakes, if you find any don't hesitate to review (or just review cuz you love me! *hint hint*). Ahem. Again, sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but it really is pretty important to the story. Well, here you go! Enjoy.**

Chapter Nine: Cunning Devices

Over the course of the next week Felix acted out the part of Perfect Boyfriend amazingly. He walked me to class, wasn't too pushy, and asked me endless questions about how my day was and what I did. As much as the girls were oohing and aahing over him and telling me how sweet he was being, I was quickly growing tired and worn down from him constantly being around me, and I'd taken to avoiding him as often as possible.

Today was one of those times. I'd been hiding out in the library behind a pile of books, half studying and half staring out a window, wondering what on Earth to do about the situation I'd gotten myself into, when I saw the familiar stride of Felix coming around the corner of one of the shelves. Grabbing my books, shoving them in my bag, and bolting I whipped around a different bookshelf.

"Summer? Was that you? Summer?" Felix called out and when I didn't answer and kept running I heard him let out a low string of curse words. I'm sure that I was frustrating him, ignoring him like this, but I couldn't help it. I needed space to breathe, and I was afraid that if I let myself be alone with him then I would end up yelling at him or something for being so... so... so _clingy_!

As I rounded a corner outside of the library I ran into someone and fell backwards, flat on my arse. There were a pair of long legs in front of me and an arm extended down to me, which I took gratefully.

"Sorry," I said hastily, "I wasn't watching where I was going and-" I broke off when I saw who it was. "Oh. It's you," I said to James' smirking face.

"You're not still mad about that night are you?" James asked, abruptly pulling back the hand that he'd used to hoist me up with as though I'd burned him.

"No, I'm just pissed off for no apparent reason," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"Oh," he said, seemingly uncertain as to how to respond to that.

"Well, if you're quite capable of leaving me alone for more than a day, I have a crap load of homework that I'd like to attend to," I said stiffly, ready to move on. I wasn't really still that mad with him, irritated? Yes. Mad? Not so much.

"Wait, Green, come on. I didn't mean it like that," James said and I turned, looking back at him, keeping my expression blank.

"Then how _did_ you mean it?" I asked, a little more sharply than I intended.

"I don't know," James muttered, running a hand through his hair in that irritating way that almost seemed endearing- I stopped that train of thoughts in their tracks. _Where the_ bloody hell _did that come from?_ I thought in irritation, I didn't think that James _bloody_ Potter was endearing. No sir, not going to happen.

"Well, when you figure it out please do inform me, however... Until then. 'Bye Potter," I said, wanting to get out of there sooner rather than later. Mostly because Felix could come out the door at any second and see me, but also because I really wasn't sure what would come out of my mouth if I stayed around Potter another minute. Mostly the first though. I hoped.

Later that same day, during dinner, Felix walked up to me with a strained sort of smile pasted on his face. He greeted my friends calmly and gave me a look that clearly said come-talk-with-me-_NOW_. I didn't want him to become more pissed than he probably already was so I gave up hiding from him for now and followed him out of the Great Hall.

"Sunny?" I gritted my teeth as he used the nickname that Al and Rose had given me, I could barely tolerate them using it and coming out of Felix's mouth it just felt, _wrong_.

"Hmm," was all I could reply with as I stared determinedly at the ceiling beyond his head.

"You've been avoiding me." it wasn't a question, or even really an accusation. Just a statement. I bit the edge of my lip and tried not to look at Felix. And failed. My eyes flickered back to his face momentarily and he looked wary, as though he didn't know what to expect from me as a response. I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face.

"I just, this isn't really working out that great for me and-" I was cut off by Felix grabbing me and pulling me into his chest.

"Please don't break up with me," I closed my eyes tight against the horror in his voice and tried to steady my breathing, which was hard when he was basically crushing all of the air out of my lungs.

"Alright," I murmured, trying desperately to step out of his tight embrace, "alright, I won't, I wasn't going to, anyways. I don't think," I said, and his face momentarily smoothed out as he smiled at me.

"Give me another chance?" he asked quietly, "I'll do everything to fix this." I frowned at him.

"You didn't really do anything _wrong_, Felix. I just don't feel like this is going to work out between us. I feel like we're too different of people-" Felix cut me off again.

"One week, give me one week to change your mind, Sunny, _please_," his voice broke a little on the last word and I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood. I didn't know how to deal with this sort of thing. I wasn't the person who usually had any relationship problems because they didn't have a lot of relationships.

"Yes, alright," I said slowly, feeling as though I was going to dread ever agreeing to this, "I guess that's fine."

And he walked away. Just like that. Not another word, just a smile of relief and the long strides away from me. _Whaaaaa-?_ I thought, but shook it off. Guys were weird, and I couldn't be the only thing that he was worried about, maybe he was late for a prefect meeting, or a before class discussion or... I stopped that train of thought as I reentered the Great Hall. Nope, it was just weird.

XXXX

Marcus glared at the three people in front of him. One was Aurelius, another who look like a strikingly older version of Felix, and none other than Felix himself, who looked like he'd very much rather be anywhere else in the world than in this room.

"And what exactly are you telling me?" Marcus asked quietly, glaring at Felix warningly.

"She gave me a week to prove to her that we can be in a relationship. We need to act within that week, I'm not sure if I can convince her or not - she seemed pretty interested in breaking up with me," Felix looked rather put out by this last statement, as though the thought of a girl ever wanting to break up with him had never occurred to him - in fact, it probably hadn't. Ever since birth he had been the star child, the one "destined for great things", the one who would make his family proud. He never lacked in anything that he might want and was always told that he was superior to others. He had also gained the family's trademark devilishly good looks and he was proud to say that he knew how to use them to get what he wanted out of women. Marcus chose to ignore his response in favor of rounding on Aurelius.

"This was your plan of getting close to the girl? A simple minded boy?" Marcus growled, ignoring (along with everyone else in the room) Felix's squawk of indignation.

"Well, if you will," Aurelius said, his voice low and smooth as he turned his wand over in his hands thoughtfully, "it has worked thus far, and it simply means that we'll need to speed up our plans a bit. And we always have the secondary plan in place in case-" he was cut off by Marcus' eyes narrowing dangerously in his direction as he turned back towards Felix and his dad.

"Do not _screw this up_," Marcus hissed, and with one final snap of his robes he left the room, leaving behind a thoughtful Aurelius who was staring out the window onto a set of sprawling green lawns, a shaken Felix, who wanted nothing more than to leave this place never to return for any reason, and a determined Mr. Jain, who was set on getting his son a seat with the people who were likely to gain more power than Voldemort ever had.

**a/n2: Hiya! Well, we thought Felix was all sunshine and fun did we? No sir-e! But anyways. I should HOPEFULLY HOPEFULLY have the next chapter up on SATURDAY, Sunday at the latest because I do have a piano recital on Saturday and, well, yeah! But, anywho, review please! I love you all! Have a lovely week!**


	10. Somewhere Only We Know

**a/n: okay, this is going to be a kinda long Author's Note but bare with me, cuz it's important. I want to clear up some things that I don't want to deaden the story with by adding in exposition, SO YOU NEED TO READ THIS, otherwise some stuff about the story might be a bit weird for you:**  
**James and Fred normally hang out with the other boys in their dorm: Will Padalecki and Tucker Winchester.**  
**Summer and Rose normally hang out with the other girls in their dorm: Travy DeVill, Jill Smith, and Lucy Lane.**  
**Summer did, in fact, try out for the Quidditch team (it was during one of the time jumps that this took place and the Gryffindor Quidditch roster is as follows:  
Chasers: James (also the Captain), Fred, and Jill. Beaters: Tucker and Summer. Seeker: Albus. Keeper: Will.  
****"generally accompanied the end of the month" is refering to Summer's 'time of the month', I was being vague on purpose, anywho, if you hadn't already realized from this chapter her time of the month makes her even more "dramatic, sarcastic, and bitchy" as I so fondly described to one of my friends.**

**Kelly and Summer's Mom and Dad aren't wizarding, but they do keep up to date with the wizarding news and Kelly is an avid Quidditch fan (she might get this from the fact that Summer plays).  
****Ginny is currently writing for the Quidditch column at the Daily Prophet, Harry is Head of the Auror Department.  
****Ron works in the Auror Department, Hermione in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.  
****Though Draco and Astoria have tried to move on from the past they still aren't one speaking terms with the Weasley's or Potter's (mainly because Ron's pride and grudge refuse to let this happen).  
****Felix's last name is Jain, he's the son of one of the characters (who work for Marcus) mentioned in a previous chapter... Just in case you hadn't caught that yet.  
****Scorpius and Albus are best friends (even though they're in different houses. Scorpius is in Slytherin, Albus in Gryffindor, in case you live under a rock and didn't catch that ;) ), another reason Rose is afraid to tell Albus about their relationship. This is why Scorpius comes to the Burrow for Christmas dinner.  
****Alright! I told you this story was going to get darker... It hasn't yet... So sorry about that (I'm sure you're not) it should be here (the darkness I mean) by Chapter Thirteen.  
****The plot line will definitely be kicking up in a few chapters, instead of... Well... This.  
****Okay, I think that about covers it. Now, onwards! A long chapter full of James/Summer for you all!**

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER, OKAY, MOVING ON.**

**Oh, and I love all of you who have reviewed, followed, or favorited this story! You seriously make my day when I come on and see that I have a new follower or review! Virtual cookies to all of you who review -hint hint- :D**

Chapter Ten: Somewhere Only We Know

_6:45am - Summer_

The moment I woke up that morning I could feel it, something in my bones telling me that somehow today was going to be big. _Maybe I'll break it off with Felix?_ I thought and immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over me, even me avoiding him hadn't gotten through his thick skull and he seemed to almost desperately latch onto me whenever I was in sight. Everyone else seemed to love him. I couldn't breathe.

I walked to the window and stared out over the grounds, so lost in thought that I almost didn't notice Rose walking up behind me.

"Hey," she said softly, giving me a once over and then, never one to be subtle, said, "you're not happy with him are you?" for a second I considered playing dumb but finally I just sighed and frowned at the grounds.

"We just weren't meant to be together I guess, I mean, he's so Slytherin anyway that it didn't really-" I broke off at the look on Rose's face, "oh no, I didn't mean it like that. I meant that he's all the bad qualities that everyone always- oh gosh, I'm really screwing this up aren't I, Rose?" I asked and she scowled at the wall, which I took as a yes, I sighed.

"I know you didn't-" Rose started suddenly, stopping almost as quickly, "I know that's not how it was meant. It's just, it's going to be hard enough telling everyone at Christmas when Scorpius comes over for dinner and I need at least one person on my side."

I threw my arms around her as her eyes started misting a bit, she didn't cry but she returned my tight embrace just as strongly. "Everything will work out in the end, you'll see," I said quietly, simply praying against everything that it would be true. After six years of hating each other Rose and Scorpius really deserved to finally have one thing in their relationship go right, without any of us interfering and screwing it up.

Knowing she'd want to be alone for a bit I quickly got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall. _Everything will work out in the end_, I told myself firmly, wondering how I was going to fix this between Felix and I so that it wouldn't all blow up in my face.

_7:00am - Rose_

As soon as Summer left Rose sat down on her bed, hard. This was so strange. No one but her knew about her relationship with Scorpius (except for Rose and Scorpius of course) and she was going to have to tell her whole family at Christmas dinner. In the Burrow. She felt sick.

_Everything will work out in the end_, she thought to herself quietly, repeating the words that Summer herself said to Rose. Summer had seemed weird recently, ever since she'd started dating Felix, and Rose was almost positive that even Summer herself wasn't noticing it. If she had been then she would've put an end to it almost immediately.

Because it involved James. And Rose thought, personally, that they'd started to fall for one another._ And_, Rose thought, _if anyone can tell when two "enemies" are falling in love, it should be me_.

With a sigh, she hauled herself up, off her bed, and into the shower. After she was fully satisfied, Rose pulled on her uniform and headed down to breakfast. But first, Scorpius and her were set to meet in an abandoned classroom. She couldn't wait. And she was even more excited for when she could claim Scorpius as her's publicly and all the little tramps that always hung all over him would be forced to run for the hills.

_7:10am - James_

James groaned as Fred launched himself onto James' bed, smothering his face into the pillow and stabbing him with his elbows.

"Wakey wakey Jamsey," came Fred's sing song voice from above him.

"Five more minutes," James grumbled, trying to shove Fred off of him. Fred scoffed.

"You said that five minutes ago, now get up, otherwise all the good food'll be gone!" came a shout from across the dormitory. It was Will Padalecki, hungry as always, then he turned thoughtful. "Hey, James," James grunted in response and he took this to mean that James was listening, "when are you going to post the results for who made the team? It's been nearly two weeks since tryouts man, we're all dying here, and we have to start training soon. Our first match is against Slytherin and we need to crush them."

"Yeah, I was going to put those up today, the list is in the top drawer," James said, nodding towards it, "if you want to look at it."

All the guys in the room immediately clustered around it and, using that to his advantage, he rushed towards the bathroom and locked himself inside for a very long hot shower. The first practice was going to be tonight and he was going to need all the relaxation that he could get.

_7:12am - Summer_

I was walking slowly towards breakfast, not really wanting to get there for once. I considered running down to the kitchens but immediately denied myself that privilege. I wasn't going to be a coward and run away, where had all my Gryffindor courage gone?

As I rounded the last corner and saw Felix I almost stopped but I forced myself to keep walking, to go up to him, smile slightly - though I'm sure it came out as more of a grimace than an actual 'hey I'm happy to see you' expression - and attempted to laugh at his jokes as we made our way to the Great Hall.

I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to Rose's predicament. Her and Scorpius seemed to genuinely like each other and it sure wasn't going to be easy to just come out and tell our family, especially her dad. Ron (they'd told me not to bother with the formalities when it became clear that I was becoming close friends with their kids - or most of them anyway) still to this day held his grudge against the Malfoy family for everything that they'd done to the Weasley's and Hermione during the Second Wizarding War.

I thought it was a little preposterous seeing as everyone else - Harry and Hermione included - had moved on but at least he tolerated Scorpius' presence in the house and nobody could ask more of him than that. As I came out of my thoughts I realized that Felix had been talking to me.

"... And I was assuming that would be fine with you?" he finished and I stared blankly at him.

"Sorry, say that again?" I asked and he sighed, pulling me down one of the side corridors.

"Look, Sunny," I gritted my teeth when he called me that but he didn't seem to notice, "you've been all distant lately and... Have I done something wrong?" I had to stop myself from shouting at him, I honestly just wanted to be rid of the annoying, clingy, I-need-to-know-everything-about-your-life Felix. Honestly? I knew that I was being unfair and I knew that he was probably perfect for some girl here but that girl wasn't me and I couldn't take much more, still, for the sake of trying to figure out how to let him down nicely, I bit my tongue.

"Nothing's wrong," I said, keeping my voice neutral and hoping he would let the subject drop. He didn't. I almost hexed myself in the foot. Or the head. Really, whichever worked best.

"Are you sure?" he pressed, I mashed my mouth into a line to keep from spouting out a list of things that no good girlfriend would ever say.

"Nothing's wrong," I insisted, my voice a little more sharp than I intended. Felix shot me a weary look but let it go. Finally. But then he brought up the second most topic that I wanted to avoid.

"Well, I was saying earlier that I was wondering if you'd gotten your dress to the Halloween Ball yet," Felix said lightly, my eyes narrowed slightly but I tried valiantly to smooth out my expression again.

"I'm not going," I said, trying to keep my voice as light as his, as though I was telling him that I liked pancakes, or that kittens were cute, not that I had just told him that his girlfriend - practically required by Hogwarts standards to attend Hogsmeade and dances with him - wasn't going to the Halloween Ball.

"What?" Felix sounded shocked, and my thoughts immediately jumped to _as long as I was being forced to go with him I wouldn't be showing my face anywhere near that party_, I immediately winced and berated myself for thinking something like that towards a guy that had been nothing but nice to me, if not a little overbearing. "But you're going with me!" make that a lot overbearing.

"No. I'm not." I said, trying to keep my voice from dropping to a growl, I could feel an onset of a headache pounding in my temples and the clenching in my stomach that normally accompanied the end of the month. Groaning internally I grabbed my head with one hand, kneading my temples.

"Why not?" Felix demanded and I shot him a dirty look before I could stop myself._ Bad Summer, bad bad bad Summer, be nice to him. He's probably just confused and irritated with you constantly brushing him off. What guy wouldn't be?_

"I don't want to," I said simply, please, I prayed, please oh please just let it go.

"I thought all girls wanted to go to dances!" Felix exclaimed and I gnashed my teeth, the headache was coming full blast now and I pinched the area between my eyebrows, hoping to set it off for just a bit longer.

"Maybe you should go with one of them then," I muttered and he stared at me for a moment before scowling.

"I don't know what's gotten your wand in a knot but I've been nothing but kind and supportive this whole time and you just keep pushing me away! You keep shoving me off, telling me no, hold on a moment, I need to go see _Albus_ about something," he growled and I took a step back from the hostile look he was throwing me. _Where the bloody hell had_ that _come from?_

"What-" he cut me off.

"It's always him, or Fred and James, why are you always around them anyways? You claim that you hate James but you spend more time with him_ arguing and shouting and bloody fighting_ than you do with _me_! Your_ bloody_ fucking _boyfriend_!" His voice had steadily risen to a shout and he was towering over me, people were beginning to look down the corridor suspiciously as they passed on their way to breakfast.

"What are you implying?" I asked coldly and he sneered down at me, I'd never seen so much fury and hatred in his face as I had in that moment.

"I don't know, what do you_ think_ I'm implying?" he asked, voice as frigid as mine. The temperature in the corridor had quickly plummeted to sub-zero. I slapped him. He stared at me in shock as I tears started to pool in my eyes and I turned on my heel (very pleased with the bright red mark on his cheek that I was sure would be there for a while) and started to storm away, heavily cursing my overly emotional state. I ignored his calls after me and sped up slightly, wanting to at least make it to Gryffindor Tower before I completely lost it.

_7:33am - Rose_

When Rose walked out of the hallway, extremely satisfied from her makeout session with Scorpius, the last thing that she expected to see was a clearly distraught Summer making a beeline straight back to Gryffindor Tower. Rose, clearly sensing that something had happened and Summer would need her help buffering people she ran up to her and shielded her from most people's view. Telling them to shove the bloody hell off when they tried to prod.

"Thanks," Summer said gratefully, wiping desperately at a few stray tears that were already leaking down her cheeks. Rose could tell that she was just barely holding it together until they got somewhere a little more private.

"Anytime sweetheart," Rose replied, then glared at a curious group of third years and yelled, "beat it!" they quickly scampered out of the way. They were at the portrait of the Fat Lady in record time and she smiled sympathetically at them before opening quickly. Unfortunately, Fred, James, and Albus just happened to be exiting just as they were shoving our way in. Summer looked determinedly at the floor but Albus was already stepping forward worriedly, reaching out an arm to pull her into a tight hug.

"What's wrong with her?" James asked and Summer promptly burst into tears against Albus' shoulder. Rose and Albus both sent him dirty looks and as Albus rubbed her back soothingly Rose snapped at James.

"Can't you even _try_ to show some compassion?" she growled angrily and even Fred seemed a little disgruntled with him, he had the decency to look at the floor in shame.

"Sorry," he murmured, then turned to Summer, "hey, you okay Summer?" he asked and she sniffled, tried for a sarcastic voice, failed, and replied.

"Yeah, I've just been accused of being a lying, cheating bitch. No worries, it's fine," conflicting with her words her tears flowed harder as she said this. Rose gasped and Albus' free hand clenched into a fist.

"It was Felix wasn't it?" Rose growled and Albus looked ready to murder.

"Just say the word, Summer," Albus said, glowering at the portrait hole, "and I'll go punch his face in so hard he won't be able to talk well enough to give you an apology," Summer shook her head slowly, rubbing at her eyes.

"That'd just be giving him what he wants. He was just mad because I told him that I wasn't going to the Halloween Ball," Summer murmured, her tears finally stopping, she didn't look at anyone, instead studying the Gryffindor Common Room like she hadn't lived in it for five years.

"What?" Rose gasped, "you're not going to the Halloween Ball?" when she saw the look Summer threw her way she quickly coughed and murmured, "I mean, of course you're not going to the Ball, that wanker. He should've known that." Summer giggled a little bit and then sighed, twisting a piece of hair around her finger and Rose bet that she didn't even realize that she was doing it, Summer did stuff like that a lot, stuff that she never realized that she did but that gave away what mood she was in perfectly. Like the hair twirling, she did that when she was thinking hard about something, and... Rose nodded as Summer bit her lower lip, that was the second thing she did while thinking.

"I probably overreacted. He asked me if I had gotten my dress yet and I told him I wasn't going. Then he told me that every girl wanted to go to dances and I told him to go with one of them." James and Fred snickered here and Summer glowered at them until they shut up, "then he told me I never spent any time with him and I," she imitated Felix's voice almost perfectly, "_keep shoving him off, telling him no, hold on a moment, I need to go see _Albus_ about something._ Then he implied that not only was I sleeping with Albus that I was also doing it with Fred and James. And then I slapped him and walked away."

Even James looked murderous when she'd finished. "He implied that _we_ were sleeping together?" he asked, voice low. Rose glared at him.

"Way to be an insensitive prick, James, good to know we can always count on you to not give a damn!" Rose exclaimed. James rounded on her.

"Hey! That's not fair! I was just about to point out that Summer would have way more class than to go out with me in the first place and I doubt she would sleep with me, or Albus, or Fred, and definitely not all of us at once. I mean, it would be way too easy for us to figure it all out! She's smarter than that!" Summer raised an eyebrow.

"Did you just simultaneously compliment me, insult yourself, _and_ save your arse? Im-_press_-ive," she said, drawing out the word.

"Real clever," James sneered, "think of that one all on your own?" Summer made to move towards him and he backed away, something flickering in his eyes as he did so. "What's got your wand in a knot?"

Summer grimaced then chuckled lightly right on cue and Rose took the chance to pull her towards the girls dormitories.

"As you were!" Rose shouted after them and Rose and Summer calmly (or as calmly as they could with a sad-angry-happy-not-quite-sure-of-her-mood girl) made their way towards the bathroom to freshen up Summer for the day.

_2:34pm - James_

To say that James was surprised that Fred, Albus, and Rose where shuffling Summer off onto him for the final (an off for all of them) period and dinner surprised him would've been the understatement of the century. Probably of the millennium as well.

"You want me to do _what_?" James asked them, shocked. Summer stood a ways away, clearly annoyed at being left out of the loop and nervous about what they might be discussing.

"We just want you to keep her busy for a couple hours, probably through dinner so that we can track down Felix and talk-" here Rose interrupted Albus to mutter "or beat," Albus ignored her and continued, "some sense into him. We also want to get his side of the story, since there's two sides to everything."

"Yeah," Rose muttered again, "a right and a wrong. And Summer's side is obviously the right side." Albus sighed but continued to ignore her, obviously they'd been through this many times before.

"No," James said, he wasn't doing it, he couldn't do it. "She'll kill me," there was a derisive snort at this and everyone turned to see Summer walking towards them.

"Not if you behave yourself, you know you want to spend time alone with me. I'm just afraid of what you might try," James scowled and Rose stifled a laugh. "Come on, Potter, three hours isn't going to kill you."

After a moment of awkward silence in which everyone stared at him he finally broke down and told them that fine, he'd do it, but if anything happened to him he was going to come back and haunt them, and so then started the time in which James Potter was coerced into being the personal entertainment of Summer Green.

_3:00pm - Summer_

"I don't know why I agreed to this," James muttered to himself. For the past 30 minutes or so I had been laying under a tree while he desperately tried to entertain himself by throwing rocks at ripples in the water.

"Are you about done with that?" I asked grumpily, my stomach and head were killing me and I would've been way happier with their "mission" (basically, not happy at all) if they had just let me lie in bed instead of shoving me off onto James.

"What's your problem?" he asked for what had to be the hundredth time that day and I resisted the urge to throw something at his head, one of us had to be the adult here. I don't know why he liked asking me that so much but it really made him sound like a prick.

"You're supposed to be entertaining me," I murmured, staring at the sky. At this point any sort of distraction would be welcome. Even a derisive conversation with James.

"Oh," he said and I heard footsteps walking closer, then stopping next to my head. "Well, come on then." I looked up at him to see a hand extending in my direction but rather than take it I clambered to my feet. It was petty and childish and I was supposed to be acting like the adult but I couldn't find it in myself to care just yet.

We walked for at least fifteen minutes, climbing staircases that moved around suddenly, causing us to backtrack and rework our route. Or more James' route as he was yet to tell me where we were running off to. Finally, after we reached the top of yet another set of stairs I managed to ask, "and just where is it that we're going?"

He gestured grandly and smiled at me, and for once it was completely genuine and took my breathe away a little. "We're here."

"Where exactly is here?" I asked and he smiled but didn't answer, simply gestured me forwards.

We must have been very near the top of Hogwarts because I could see for miles, I could even see a tiny village in the distance which must've been Hogsmeade. The sun was beginning it's decent for the evening, painting the sky in golds, purples, and pinks.

The room was decently sized, opening up from the door that we had just walked through to a triangular looking window which - when I inspected it closer - I realized didn't have any glass. It simply... Opened up to the world, as though welcoming it in. My mouth must've been hanging open because James shot a smirk over at me.

"Fred and I found this place in our third year, it's always been my thinking spot. I've found the beauty of it stunning, especially when it's snowing." James said, and while he was talking I found myself staring at him, I never would've thought that I would ever hear him talking about beauty, especially to me.

"Hogwarts in general is beautiful," I murmured, looking out over the grounds again, "it finds new ways to surprise us each and every day." James nodded his agreement and we sat there, feet hanging over the lip of the roof, in companionable silence, for quite some time.

"Do you really care for Felix?" James asked, it was the first time that either of us had spoke in about an hour and I jumped a little at the sound of his voice. The silence had been so relaxing.

"I don't know," I murmured, "I want him to be happy, and I know that isn't going to be with me. But I also have no interest in trying to fight for him either. I think we'd be better off if we were just friends," I said and James chuckled.

"Ah, the old friend-zoned speech," he murmured, fingering a loose thread on his cloak as he stared out over the grounds. I took the moment to study him._ He really is good looking_- I shook that train of thought off, I did _not_ just think that James Potter was good looking- hot- well-built- _STOP_, I told myself firmly. His black hair stuck up a little in the back and it looked as though he'd been running his hands through it, which he actually did quite a bit. Not that I'd noticed or anything... but his honey brown eyes that normally twinkled (yes, I did just use the word twinkled to describe James' eyes, shut up) with mischievousness looked worn down and tired, as though he just wanted to curl up in bed for the rest of his life. I knew that feeling.

"Is everything alright?" I asked and he gave me a surprised look and something else flitted over his face but it was gone too quickly for me to make anything of it.

"Yeah, I'm just-" he didn't finish the thought and I waited patiently, years of living with Rose had taught me that people will speak to you when they're ready, there's no use in pushing it, so I looked out over the grounds and the dimming skies while I waited.

"It's just so hard sometimes, you know? Famous Harry Potter is my dad, everyone knows his name, and they all know me by extension. Then they come up to me and go on and on about what a great man my father is and they're so sure that I'll make someone of myself someday but in reality I'm never going to compare because who can when you're father defeated Lord Voldemort and your biggest problems are the next Potions practical and getting so-and-so to go out with you.

"At the age of one my dad had defeated the greatest dark wizard of all time, and what had I done by the age of one? Learn to crawl, toddle around maybe? I hadn't - still haven't - done anything of significance, anything that will get me remembered for _me_. Not just 'oh, you're Harry Potter's boy, eh?'" I stared at him in shock, but when he looked over at me and I saw the worry in his face mine morphed into one of compassion.

"No, I can't even imagine what it must be like, living in that shadow. Feeling like you always have to be perfect because of who your father is and what your family has done. But I know this, that anyone worth anything will look at you and see someone that is going to do great things in their life, not just because they're Harry Potter's son, not just because their Uncle and Aunt were also responsible for Voldemort's downfall, not because of any of that. But because, when they look at you, they see someone who isn't afraid to stand up for what they believe in. Because they see someone who, while still has their own faults, knows those and is a better man because of it. Because they look at you, and they can just tell, that one day they will be remembered because of something other than their name." James looked at me for a moment before he broke out into a smile, reaching over to give me a small hug, he looked back out over the sky and, sending one last glance my way, said.

"You're not all bad, Green, you're not all bad."


	11. Moment of Clarity

**a/n: I really have no excuse for why this chapter is so late - especially considering that it was pretyped - other than I wasn't really sure about how it fit in and how I felt about it. (That and this was supposed to be up nearly a month ago but for some reason FanFic has been giving me promblems. It's really making me want to bang my head against a wall repeatedly.) But oh well, enjoy! And let me know what you think! (*hint hint*). Alrighty... I think that's it! Onwards! (Oh, and this one's completely from James' PoV).**

Chapter Eleven: Moment of Clarity

James Potter sat in the Gryffindor common room at approximately 7:30pm on Sunday evening, scowling into the fireplace. He didn't understand the insane feelings he was getting every time Felix and Summer snogged, or touched, or even looked at each other with that pathetic I-like-you-and-wish-I-was-snogging-you way. He couldn't – he couldn't possibly _like_ her.

Not the girl that he had spent the last six years teasing, messing with, and generally pissing off. Not the girl that irritated him so much that he swore they would never be able to even get along. Not the girl who was currently doing everything in her power to avoid and annoy him after they had just started to semi-get along, even after he thought that they'd finally gotten over that with their heart-to-heart. _Merlin_, he hung his head in his hands, _what's wrong with me?_ He thought to himself, eyes still staring into the fire.

"You know, if you keep doing that you're going to go blind," a voice said, a strikingly familiar voice. James looked up into the eyes of Lily, but after a moment he looked back to the fire and said sullenly.

"Might do me some good. If I couldn't see, that is."

Next to him Lily sighed and sat down next to him, waiting patiently while he continued to stare into the fire and tried to collect his thoughts. He couldn't possibly like her, it had been too many years since they'd met, and James Sirius Potter didn't _like_ girls, he snogged them, maybe went a little further, and then left them. Not like they had been expecting anything more, but still. But the part of him inside that was murmuring that maybe, just maybe, he did like her was enough to successfully scare the shit out of him.

The portrait hole opened again and he heard laughter. _Her_ laughter. _How on earth do I know what her laugh sounds like?_ He thought again, internally battling against the concept of a crush, _why do I know her favorite color, food? Why do I know exactly what to expect from her when she's happy, or sad, or mad, or nervous?_ He sighed and Lily looked over at him again while the laughter abruptly stopped, _there's something wrong with me, maybe I should go see Madam Pomphrey._ Even as he thought this he knew what he had wasn't something that could be cured so easily.

"You alright, Potter," a voice said, but it wasn't her voice, and he barely had the will to lift his head a bit and see who it was that was speaking to him. He met the eyes of Jill, Tracy, and Rose, before locking eyes with Summer and quickly dropping his gaze back to the fire.

"Would you stop that?" Lily snapped, James jumped in shock, Lily hardly ever got angry at anyone, "I've already told you, you're going to go blind if you keep that up." he heard a quick intake of breath from the girls and then felt, rather than heard, their absence in the room. After a moment of silence he took a deep breath and, ignoring Lily and continuing to stare into the fire, started talking.

"I'm an idiot," he murmured, and Lily harrumphed.

"I already knew that," she said, her voice softened a bit, "this is about Summer isn't it?" she asked. James just nodded. "You know, if you don't want her to be mad at you then you could always just apologize, she's already getting over it, especially after you to spent all that time together – what did you guys talk about anyways? - and an apology would definitely speed up the process."

"No, that's not it," James said slowly, "her being angry with me makes it easier." he glanced over at Lily but her face was distorted and blocked by the warped light spots in his vision from the fire, he closed his eyes, still facing away from the fire. When he opened them again a minute later he saw that Lily looked shocked, and a little confused too.

"I don't understand," she said, "I thought you were upset that she was mad at you."

"I am," James said simply and Lily gave him an exasperated look.

"You are making absolutely no sense, you realize that, don't you?" Lily replied. After a moment, however, a slow look of something like amazement spread over her features. "You like her!" she exclaimed.

"No! I don't!" he near shouted, voice rough.

"Yes," she smirked, "you most definitely do."

"I don't want to," he murmured, closing his eyes again and burying his face in his hands. "She's with Felix, and she absolutely hates me – I mean if she didn't already hate me before – and it would just be so much simpler if I didn't have all these mixed up feelings about her. I just want everything to go back to normal!"

"Maybe this is your new normal," Lily suggested quietly, "and I know that Sunny isn't completely happy with Felix, I heard her talking with Rose and Jill and Tracy about wanting to break up with him. She said 'I'm just not getting the fireworks I thought I would, and I don't want to lead him on,' and the whole argument that they just had still hasn't resolved, apparently he doesn't understand why she just doesn't want to go to the dance and keeps pushing it, and everything else, she says he's acting like a whole new person. She likes someone else, you know." as she said this she gave James a pointed look. He scoffed.

"She doesn't like me," he said bluntly, "and if she does then she's an idiot. I mean, look at my record! I use girls and then as soon as I'm bored I throw them away, and they don't even mind because my dad is Harry Potter! Everyone's with me because of him, they've never actually cared about me, and that's never bothered me before because I've never been with any of them for them either."

"Sunny's not like that James," Lily said and he groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands.

"I know she's not like that! That's why-" he paused and grabbed his hair, Lily waited patiently while he struggled internally for a minute before continuing, "that's one of the things I like about her! One of the reasons I'd want to be with her, but she'd never want to be with me because she'd think I was just using her, or it was for a prank, or basically anything but the truth."

"The truth about you liking her because she's an amazing person? Someone who puts others before herself and can cheer people up when she doesn't even know them? The person who never wants to talk about her issues because she doesn't think she's important, and sometimes feels lost in this world when everything she's ever known doesn't belong here?" Lily paused and another voice spoke up from the stairwell.

"The girl who just admitted that she's absolutely terrified because she thinks the reason she needs to break up with Felix is not only because she doesn't feel for him, and isn't getting the fireworks, and is completely frustrated at him for being such an insufferable prick, but because she's absolutely, positively petrified at the thought that she might just like someone else? Someone that could break her heart and tear it into pieces? And maybe she's so scared because she thinks that if she lets it go any farther than it already is then she'll lose control over her heart completely?" James and Lily looked up to see Jill standing in the doorway. "James. If you really like her, you need to tell her, sitting down here looking like someone shot your pet frog isn't going to help anyone, though you might not want to tell her until tomorrow, she's going to break up with Felix now." as she finished saying that Summer's red-gold head of hair appeared at the top of the stairs and slowly made it's way towards them.

"Hey Jill, Lily..." she paused and James was about to look away when she said, so quietly he couldn't be sure if he was imagining it or not, "Potter," and disappeared out the portrait hole. James stared after her in shock and Jill smirked before disappearing back up to their dorm. Twenty minutes later Lily disappeared too, saying that she needed her sleep. But James continued to sit, staring now, not at the fire, but out the window. He was torn between worrying over these new feelings that were pushing through him – the need to be near Summer, wanting to hold her, to make her laugh and smile, to never let her leave his side again – and the worry that she hadn't come back yet and forty minutes had passed.

James knew that it didn't take that long to break up with someone, Merlin knew he'd broken up with enough people, and forty minutes was nearing on the stage of either they decided not to break up, or something had happened to Summer. James was leaning towards the latter (Summer wasn't someone who was easily deterred when she made up her mind) but he wasn't sure, and he didn't want to go looking for her when she was still out for his head and probably didn't especially want to see him.

He was still sitting there, contemplating what to do (and just about ready to stand up and go looking for her, everything else be damned) when the portrait hole opened and the sound of crying could be heard. James looked up in shock, wasn't it Summer who was going to break up with Felix? Or was it some other girl? _Who else is still up?_ James thought and looked back down at his hands, waiting for the person – most likely Summer – to come into the common room.

"Potter?" Summer said quietly, her voice sounded rough, as though she'd been screaming or crying, and when James looked up he could see why. It seemed as though she had probably been doing a little bit of both screaming and crying – her cheeks were flushed red and her eyes were shining brightly while tears cut tracks down her cheeks. She quickly rubbed the corner of her robes against the edges of her eyes, trying unsuccessfully to stop the flow of tears.

"You okay, Summer?" he asked quietly, he didn't want to have a book thrown at his head, but he also couldn't walk away from her when she looked so... Broken. "The breakup didn't go well I assume?"

"Who-" she started but James interrupted.

"Jill told me, and Lily didn't seem very surprised," at this Summer seemed to start crying with new vigor and James sat, frozen, unsure of what to do. Summer stumbled over to where James was sitting and plopped down next to him.

"It's so stupid of me to cry, I shouldn't even be this upset, I mean I was going there to breakup with him after all," Summer said, though it was muffled because her hands were covering her face.

"What shouldn't you be upset about?" he asked, reaching out hesitantly to pat her back gently, when she leaned into his hand he decided to leave it there, and continued to watch her face.

"Felix... He- he was ch-cheating on me with some Slytherin skank and he was telling her that the only reason he hadn't broken up to me yet was because he was doing it as a favor to his dad. He was getting paid! Paid to date me!" Summer said, taking a deep breath and trying to clear her face of tears and any evidence that she'd been crying (lucky for her that her crying didn't come with most of the usual horrors – red eyes, puffy lids and cheeks, bloodshot eyes, ect – and so she didn't have that hard of a time once she could finally stop crying).

"That bastard," James growled low, rage washed through him over how awful Felix had made her feel. She was sitting here, crying over some bloke she didn't really care about, but even so it had to hurt knowing that they hadn't cared about you and definitely hadn't cared about you finding out they were hooking up with someone else.

"Wh-what?" Summer said, her voice growing stronger by the second, but her eyes were wide and staring into James' rage filled ones. "Why would you care about Felix cheating on me? I don't even know why I told you, you're probably happy that he hurt me. It proved you right didn't it?" James swore silently, he'd completely forgotten about what he'd said about Felix being a fraud and prone to hurting her.

"Summer," he said quietly, "the reason I voiced my concerns was because I didn't want you to be hurt to start with. I wanted you to be wary of him, not to get hurt by him just to prove my point," she gave him a confused look.

"Are you speaking english? Or am I just delusional?" she asked and he sighed, running a hand through his hair nervously.

"I don't want you to get hurt, Summer," James said, not meeting her eyes. Why was she being so difficult? Why did he have to like her? Why did everything have to be so complicated?

"Potter?" she asked, a minute or two passed and he refused to look at her, staring intently out the window. She sighed and said, "James?" he jumped at the tingles that shot through his body when she said his name, he wanted to ask her to say it again but he was afraid of sounding deranged, or worse, like he liked her. He finally turned to face her and she had an unreadable expression on her face.

"What?" he snapped, suddenly angry that she could have so much sway over him. How was it possible that she was the only person that he could finally want to be with? She wasn't the prettiest girl, or the smartest, or the nicest, and yet she was the one he fell for. He snorted at himself, maybe she wasn't any of those things, the other part of his brain told him, but she's the bravest, most considerate, self-less person you know. And she's the only one who's not afraid to put you in your place when you're being an insufferable prick. He had to get rid of these feelings, they were eating him up inside. He hadn't thought about pranks since Felix and her had gotten together, he couldn't remember the last time he had talked to Fred for more than five minutes or about class work, and he wasn't concentrating nearly enough on Quidditch practices, they had a game in a bloody week for Merlin's sake!

Summer looked slightly affronted at his tone and turned away, apparently deciding that she didn't want to tell him anything after all. After a strained minute James reached out to her and turned her around by her shoulder.

"Look, Sunny, I'm sorry for snapping at you," he said, internally punching himself for apologizing. He shouldn't be the one apologizing! She should be! For- for making him feel pathetic and weak and constantly making him think about her! While he knew this was unreasonable he couldn't help but feel that it was easier to blame her for his attraction that to deal with it like a mature human being.

"Are you really? Or are you just saying that? Merlin, why am I even talking to you? You don't even care, and you'll probably just use the information to blackmail me or to spread around Hogwarts," Summer said nastily, jerking away from his touch, but he could see tears brewing in her eyes again and (for some reason unknown to himself) pulled her back to him, hugging her and letting her sob against his chest.

"Shhh," he murmured, "shhh, it's going to be alright. It'll be okay. Felix was a toerag and he doesn't know what he's missing out on. You're too good for him anyways, he's a pompous git and you can just forget about him, he's not worth your time or revenge" After a moment in which Summer seemed to calm down a little bit but made no motion to move from their hug he murmured, more to himself than her, "leave that to Fred and I."

If she had heard what he said she made no movement to berate him for it and for that he was thankful. Fred and James were long overdue for a prank and Felix was just the person to execute it on. The git wouldn't even know what hit him. A few minutes later Summer seemed like she was finally drifting off and, before she could fall asleep next to him, he carefully hoisted her to her feet and led her to her staircase.

"I would walk you up to make sure you're okay but I can't get up the stairs. Don't trip on your way up, alright?" he asked quietly and Summer nodded, slowly making her way up the stairs and towards her dorm. James turned and quickly made it to the seventh year boys dormitory and, rushing to Fred's bed, shook his friend awake.

"Oi! Mate, what the hell? What time is it? It's still dark out!" James staved off his indignant replies by grabbing a few WWW supplies, the invisibility cloak that he'd nicked out of his dad's office in 2nd year, Fred, and booking it down the stairs.

"We have a prank to pull," James said, excitement glinting in his eyes, Fred quickly caught on, though he was still yawning.

"Who is it?" Fred asked, sorting through the supplies James had grabbed.

"Felix," James muttered, glaring at his hands.

"Summer's boyfriend? Don't you think that's a bit... Dangerous?" Fred asked, staring at James like he'd lost his mind.

"_Ex_-boyfriend now, she was going to break up with him anyway and found him hooking up with some slutty Slytherin chick, you should've seen her when she came in," James said, sorting through the pile, quickly singling out the stuff they would need. Fred stared at him in shock, a smile slowly creeping its way across his face.

"You _fancy_ her," Fred said, James didn't grant this with a response, mainly because he wasn't ready to admit it to his best friend and he didn't necessarily want to lie about it if he did actually like her – which he strongly suspected was the case. This caused Fred's grin to broaden but James ignored this, grabbing up the supplies he had separated and dragging them under the cloak and towards the door.

**a/n2: THIS IS IMPORTANT READ THIS! Originally I wasn't planning on doing this to you but after fanfic has given me so much trouble over the past month, with finals coming up in a week (HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET SO CLOSE?), my g'ma coming into town the week after we get out of school, and 17.5 hours of community service in the first two weeks of summer, ON TOP of the new work out thing my friends and I are doing (which I really like) I really just don't have the time to write this fanfiction right now. On top of the fact that I really want to get onto what happens in later chapters but I can't just skip there so... SORRY GUYS BUT THIS IS GOING ON TEMPORARY HIATUS. But I promise promise promise, cross my heart, that as soon as June 16th rolls around (yes, I realize that's a month from now and I'm sorry) I'll have the next chapter up. Well, I hope you all have a lovely next month and I'll see you then!  
- Rose**


	12. House Elves Should Not Serve Firewhiskey

**a/n: Hey guys! Guess what? That's right! I'm back, and extrememly pleased because I ended up doing well in all of my classes and I've been having a nice relaxing summer break, how about you guys? What have you been up to? Anyways, this chapter below, used to include the dance and everything but I had to split it into two different chapters because it was 31 pages on my docs, no, I'm not joking, it took up 1/3 of the story so far. On one chapter. Yeah, I divided it into two because it had a nice spot to do so. But anyways, this chapter is 19 pages long, which means the next chapter, which will be up shortly will be 12 pages unless I add a little bit to it. This is by far my longests chapter yet! 8,000+ words O.O anyways, just wanted to say thanks to all of my reviewers, followers, and favoriters (I'll have a nice little shout out next chapter so if you want your name under that reviewer list you gotta review *hint hint* also, the more updates I get the sooner I'll update... Just thought I'd give that incentive now that I can crank out chapters every two days... But only if you guys review). ANYWAYS I KEEP GETTING OFF TRACK. THIS CHAPTER HAS ALCOHOL USE IN IT, I AM IN NO WAY SUPPORTING UNDER AGE DRINKING. Alright, now that that's covered (jeez, this is already way too long) if you catch the book reference I make somewhere in the chapter comment with the book title :) Alright, now onwards with the story. Hope you enjoy!**

**(Oh, and I'm just going to post one disclaimer for every like five chapters: I am not J. K. Rowling. If I was I would be sitting in a bedroom somewhere writing everyone elaborate tales about the Marauders and Next Gen)**

Chapter Twelve: House Elves Should Not Serve Firewhiskey

I woke up to an excited murmuring that was flowing up the stairs and into our open dormitory door. I groaned and rolled over, burying my head under the pillows as the sunlight streaming in from the windows hit my still sensitive eyes.

"Come on, Summer! Time to get up!" Rose called from somewhere on the stairs and I simply grunted in response. I wasn't sure if she heard me or not but I heard footsteps heading up the stairs and bundled further under my blankets, gripping them tightly in my hands so that she couldn't tear them away from me.

"Summer!" Rose called again in a sing-song voice, "James has posted the Quidditch tryout results!" I sat bolt upright in bed at those words. It had been two weeks since I'd tried out for the team, but at the mention of them I felt all my previous nervousness flood back into my system. I had been on the team for three years running but this year the our previous Captain had graduated Hogwarts and James was named the Captain. The same James that up until recently I had thought hated my guts. _But now..._ I thought, scrunching my eyebrows in confusion before remembering the answer to whether or not I had made one of Gryffindor's Beater positions was sitting downstairs on a piece of paper.

I stumbled out of my bed, tripping and grabbing onto the post of Tracy's bed when I dragged my sheets with me and they tangled helplessly around my legs. I struggled with them for a minute before I was finally free and rushing downstairs, pushing past a surprised Rose and jumping the couch to reach our bulletin board and scanning it quickly to find the Quidditch Roster.

_Chaser and Captain = James Potter_

_Chaser = Fred Weasley_

_Chaser = Jill Smith_

_Seeker = Albus Potter_

_Keeper = Will Padalecki_

_Beater = Tucker Winchester_

_Beater = Summer Green_

A huge grin split across my face and I hugged Jill, who was standing next me, also grinning at getting her place on the team. We jumped up and down, squealing, for a minute before we heard a cough behind us and we instantly split apart to see James, our now Captain on the Quidditch Pitch, standing behind us looking slightly embarrassed as his eyes landed on me and traveled down my body and back up to my face slowly. Fred was standing behind him, watching carefully as James' cheeks took on a slight pink tinge and he looked pointedly at Jill's face.

"You might want to change, Green. I won't have my beater giving the rest of Gryffindor the wrong idea. I have a reputation to uphold and all," James muttered, still not looking at me. I looked down at what I was wearing in confusion. Even though it was my sleeping wear it wasn't half as bad as what some girls wore - like Tracy, with her fetish for lingerie, and Lucy, who slept in only her undergarments - even in dead winter.

"It's just last years Quidditch jersey and shorts..." I said, trailing off as I looked back up to James and Fred, still confused, "but whatever, I mean, I need to get to breakfast anyways."

After I had showered and changed I headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast and sat down across from Rose and Jill, and on the right of Tracy. Within a few minutes James, Fred, Will, and Tucker were sitting around us, with James next to me. All were grinning broadly and had mischievous glints in their eyes. Tucker, who was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with a few other friends was sending them disapproving looks every couple of minutes. All the boys merrily grabbed a few pieces of toast and bacon, legs jumping up and down under the table in excitement.

"Oh no," I groaned and all heads turned towards me.

"Did you forget something upstairs again, Sunny?" Albus asked as he, too, joined our group.

"No... They've done something," I said, motioning towards the grinning James next to me and his friends. His smile lessened somewhat as he looked me over.

"You'll enjoy it, trust me," he said and I gave him a weird look.

"Why on earth would I-" I was cut off as the Great Hall doors were slammed open and a very flustered looking Felix entered; he had bits of egg and what looked like quills and vibrantly colored ink in his hair. Peeves was following closely behind him, singing crude and rather insulting songs about his "cheating" personality. My eyebrows rose so high I was sure that they would disappear into my hairline but I had to stifle a laugh when Peeves upended a pitcher of syrup onto Felix and he shot a withering glare towards James and Fred.

I couldn't hide my laughter anymore when Peeves started a louder rendition of a song about how to treat a lady and pelted Felix with bits of bacon, toast, and sausage that he was stealing from unsuspecting Slytherin's plates. Albus and Rose were watching me with surprised eyes as I reached over and pulled James into a hug. He sat there for a moment before slowly returning it, placing his hands on my lower back to pull me closer to him. I felt my face flush bright red and I pulled away, turning back to my plate of bacon and a donut that I had nicked from one of the platters farther down the table.

"How did you even get Peeves to do that? I thought that he didn't listen to anyone," I said, breaking the silence that had enveloped our group as everyone turned to their respective meals. At this all the boys shared a secretive glance and smiled knowingly.

"Let's just say... He owed us a favor," James said, his smile the widest of all and I shot him a strange look.

"Peeves doesn't owe anyone favors," I said, stabbing a piece of sausage that had rolled out of the way of my fork earlier.

"That's just what he wants you to think," Will chimed in and I gave them an appraising look.

"You didn't blackmail him did you?" I asked and the boys looked affronted at the question.

"Why do you always assume that we did something like that? Maybe we did something for him and he owed us," James said, sounding a little hurt.

"So you did blackmail him," I said, returning to my food and missing the glare James shot my way.

"No. We most certainly did not."

"Then how did you get him to-" I started but James interrupted me.

"I told you! He owed us a favor!"

"And you used your favor, that you could need for some other great scheme, on my lousy ex-boyfriend just because of last night?" I asked incredulously, Jill and Tracy shared a look that I couldn't quite catch the meaning of before it was gone and they were turning back to their very healthy breakfasts.

"What happened last-" Rose was cut off as James turned to me.

"Why shouldn't I have used it? You thought it was funny didn't you?"

"Yeah... But-"

"Then I really don't see what the problem is," James said angrily and I glared at him, crossing my arms. Albus opened his mouth as though he was going to say something but I went full steam ahead, it had been awhile since James and I had had a real argument - something that I was planning on fixing here and now.

"The problem is that I don't need people taking care of me!" I said, voice rising.

"I'm not taking care of you!" James said, his voice rising with mine.

"Then what do you call that?" I asked, waving my hand blindly in Felix's direction and almost smacking a first year Ravenclaw across the face. She gave me an affronted look and moved on, nose in the air, I resisted the childish urge to stick my tongue out at her retreating form.

"I call that a very good prank," James said calmly, trying in vain to keep his voice at a normal level. For some reason it almost seemed like he didn't want to argue with me, as though he didn't want this to turn into an all out screaming match. Something that was a completely foreign concept to me - when _didn't_ James want to have a screaming match with me? He had instigated half of the ones that we'd had in the past.

"Well, _I_ call that taking care of me. And an apology. One that I'm _not_ accepting," I said, meaning to turn back around but James hand swung out, keeping me staring at him. Something I did not want to do, not when there was a part of me that wanted to lose myself in his hazel eyes, part of me that wanted reach out and- _DO NOT continue that thought!_ I berated myself angrily.

"An apology for what, pray tell me," James said, his mouth pulled down into a scowl.

"An apology for being an arse, that's what," I muttered, looking away from his mouth. Trying to ignore the fact that he looked way better when he was smiling and the guilt I got from knowing that I was the one he was scowling because of. _You want him to be angry_, I told myself firmly, _you miss all the arguments that you guys used to get into every day_.

"When have I been an arse to you?! If anything you're the one acting like a bitch!" James said, voice rising again, I almost smiled as I realized that he had given up being cool and collected.

"That night after detention," I said firmly.

"Come ON!" he shouted, "I bloody well apologized for that and you know it!"

"Well I didn't accept your apology then either! You didn't mean it!" I shouted, the Gryffindor table had gone quiet, it seemed some were surprised to see us arguing again while others were surprised it took us this long to get back into it.

"It was sincere! I've hardly ever said 'I'm sorry' to someone!" he shouted right back at me, I thought I heard Al mutter to Rose "he's _ever_ apologized to someone?" but I couldn't be sure.

"Good for freaking you!" I shouted trying to stand up but James' other hand came out and wrapped itself around my bicep, dragging me back down into my seat. I ignored the tingles that were shooting up and down my arm as I sent him a withering glare. Now we'd attracted the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, who were watching us with interest, some making bets on who'd walk away first. I almost grinned in the normalcy of it all.

"What is this argument even about?" James asked in a slightly more normal tone.

"You," I retorted, nose crinkling as I looked at his expression, there was hurt in his eyes and I almost gave in there - Merlin only knows why that is, I've never been afraid to hurt him before - but I forced myself to straighten and shake off his grip, or try to anyways (he has a really tight grip, something I'd do good to learn after this encounter), "and your behavior, being an insufferable immature prick."

"Oh, so now I'm immature?" James said, his voice dropping dangerously low.

"Yeah, when are you just going to grow up and realize that not everyone appreciates you doing something like that?" I asked, ignoring the fact that I actually really liked their prank and the fact that Felix totally deserved it and I really did appreciate it.

"Oh shut up," James growled and I recoiled as though he slapped me, this time he let me slip through his hands, his jaw clenching and unclenching like crazy.

"Ex_cuse_ me?!" I said, voice rising again, only this time in shock.

"You're being so stupid. You're picking a fight over this stupid insignificant thing that probably doesn't, no, not probably. It _doesn't_ bother you. You just want another screaming match. You're the one who needs to grow up here, not me."

The only sound that followed was that of me slapping him clean across the face and Rose, Jill, and Tracy berating him after I had gotten up and walked out of the Great Hall with as much dignity as I could muster. Because I knew he was right. I knew that I was acting like a child. I knew that I was making something out of nothing so that we would fight. I knew that I was being stupid, looking for normalcy in a screaming match. But I could stand the feelings that were bubbling up in me when I was around him, I couldn't handle the fact that I might just possibly be falling for him. For James Bloody Potter. The guy who I was sure hated me. The guy who had made it clear - even if he had been acting sweeter lately - that he would never ever date me. The guy I would never have a chance with.

I swiped the traitorous tears that had managed to slip out of my eyes without me noticing and continued down another hallway, cursing the fact that I didn't have any homework that I could work on before double potions started this morning.

Slowly, I made my way to class, digging through my bag looking for my potions essay that was due this period. Just as I had found it and was about to pull the essay from my bag I ran headlong into someone, stumbling backwards and tearing my essay in half.

"Shit," I muttered, whipping out my wand and pointing it at the essay, "_reparo_."

"So sorry," a sleazy voice from above me murmured, "didn't see you there." I involuntarily took a step back and looked up (I actually had to look up to see his face, he was that tall).

"Who are you?" I asked, trying to remain calm as I gripped my wand tightly.

"Is that how you respond to everyone's apologies? Must be if your argument with Potter was any indication this morning," his voice was slow and he twirled his wand between his fingers, as though he didn't have a care in the world. He had slicked back deep brown hair and brown eyes that could be considered beautiful if they weren't contorted with malice.

"Of course, it doesn't take much to break someone," he said, taking a step closer. My eyes widened a fraction as I stared at his sneering face in horror. What the hell was he talking about? Voices from down the hall seemed to remind him of where we were and he cast a look over his shoulder as he walked away, "Felix won't give up, he can't," he said casually as he disappeared around the corner. It seemed as though I wasn't taking in enough oxygen because I stumbled to the left and had to grip the wall tightly as black spots clouded my vision. I took in shaky gasps of breaths as the group of people came around the bend in the corridor.

"Summer? Are you ok?" a girl's voice asked. I straightened immediately and forced a smile on my face as I turned and saw Luke, James, Will, Tucker, the girl (who I assumed was Luke's girlfriend with the way that she was leaning on his shoulder, _so that must be Jenny Lightbody_) who had spoken, and another brunette that was standing next to Fred a few feet behind them.

"Fine, spiffy, fantastic," I said, even though I still felt slightly light-headed as I turned on my heel and walked away from the scene. The rest of the day passed without incident and I decided not to mention it to my friends as I brushed it off as Felix's way of getting back at me for James' prank this morning. If he thought that I was ever going to even stand in the same room as him ever again then he had another think coming.

Dinner was wonderful, per usual, though the boys didn't show up. It worried me slightly but I tried not to think about it too much because no one else seemed worried about it and I really didn't want to have to face James again after this morning.

"Do you want to practice our patronus charms?" Rose asked as we headed back to our common room after dinner, "we really need to get better at those before next class period." I tried not to snort at Rose when she said 'we', I was the only one who really needed help, besides Tracy of course.

"Alright," I said, already not looking forward to making a fool out of myself in the middle of the common room. Rose looked over at me for a brief second before giving me an encouraging smile.

"I'm sure you'll get it right away tonight," Rose said and I nodded, hoping that she was right.

I did not 'get it right away' as Rose said, I didn't get it all actually. We had been practicing for nearing on three hours and I was going through every moment that I had felt ecstatic that I could remember. Nothing. Currently I was sitting in a comfy chair by the fire, trying to rub my monster headache away (which wasn't working too well). The common room was uncommonly quiet as we - or mainly I - had scared the majority of the fifth year and lower kids either up to their dorms or out into the corridors and the library; my head jerked up in surprise when I heard the portrait hole open but when I saw that it was James and his friends I simply buried my face back into my hands, ignoring Tracy's quiet "are you ready to try again?".

"Whoa," Fred said, glancing around, "where is everyone?" nobody answered and I assumed it was because Rose and the others were trying to get rid of them until I felt someone kneel down in front of me.

"You alright there? Your hair looks like it might need a little help," James murmured, I hadn't realized that I was pulling on my hair until James' fingers slid in under mine and slowly pried them away, smoothing my hair back down. Still silence. I opened my eyes and saw that everyone was staring at us with varying degrees of surprise to glee.

"We were practicing our patronus charms," Rose finally spoke up and at the name of the spell I slumped forwards again, this time my head landing rather suddenly on James' shoulder, but since he didn't seem to mind I didn't move. Also because that simple touch was doing crazy things to my body and tingles were racing through me like the beginnings of a huge wildfire.

"Oh," James said, "how was that going?" at the same time Fred said, "yeah, but why isn't anyone here?"

"Those two kind of go hand in hand," Jill muttered, dutifully not looking at me as I finally straightened and tried to pull myself together.

"How so? Normally people are dying to find out-"

"Was it going well?" James said, cutting Fred off, Fred shot him a slightly irritated look but it quickly morphed into one of curiousity.

"Yeah," Rose said, Jill and Al nodded in agreement while Tracy murmured, "good now," and I glared at them all. _Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid_, I thought to myself. It was so stupid of me to not be able to get this spell. Granted, it was supposed to be hard, but I was a natural at magic! So why was this coming so hard? I didn't realize that they were waiting for me to answer until Rose spoke for me.

"Well..." she murmured, looking at me, I nodded slightly and she continued, "Summer's the only having trouble..." Silence. _What's turned all of them into mice?_ I thought, glaring accusingly at the floor, as though it were the reason for all my problems.

"Awesome," James said, standing up and my glare snapped to him, he backtracked quickly, "not what I meant! I mean, cuz, we're good at it so we could help you, um, we could help you get it down." I was really starting to hate silence. I took a deep breath before answering.

"Sure," I muttered, glare returning to the floor.

"Okay, so did you think of a good memory?" James asked and I rolled my eyes.

"That's kind of the problem," I said and he nodded.

"Right, so what were you thinking of?" Fred asked and I frowned.

"Well, first it was the first time I rode a broom," I saw James open his mouth and beat him to it, "that's crap, I know. Then I thought of this time when Al, Rose, and I got into this huge snowball fight over Christmas break."

"I remember that," James said suddenly, "you guys almost gave yourselves hypothermia out there." I nodded in agreement, it had taken three hours under three layers of blankets by the warm fire with five mugs of hot chocolate before the shivers finally left our bodies.

"So obviously that one didn't work, so then I thought of this one Christmas - because it's my favorite holiday and it was the first one in a long time that we had all been together on Christmas - and then I thought of this picnic that we went on when I was about five. That was the day before my parents told me my dad got a promotion and we stopped seeing him regularly - if at all. And that's the happiest I can ever remember being," I said and silence cloaked the room again. This time it was heavy and oppressive until James pulled me up so that I was standing. Then he handed me my wand and put his arm under mine, successfully raising it until it was pointing at the wall.

"Ok, so think of being completely ecstatic, practically floating you were so happy. Let the memories associated with that feeling come to you and grab onto one that seems particularly strong." It was hard to think of anything when he was so close to me, the smell of soap mixed with pine and something sweet enveloped me and I could feel my heart rate kick up a beat. _Keep it together_, I told myself firmly, though I lost that train of thought when his fingers drew gentle circles on my wrist (which I knew was supposed to be calming but was having the exact opposite effect on my body). "Ready?" he asked and I nodded, afraid of what I would say if I opened my mouth.

Taking a deep breath laced with James' alluring scent and closing my eyes firmly I tried to concentrate and said clearly "_Expecto Patronum_". Someone let out a small gasp and James' fingers around my wrist tightened momentarily. I opened my eyes and they widened slightly, standing in front of me was a silvery translucent being (or beast with a rating of 4 - dangerous - according to M.O.M classification) on four legs. With one horn in the middle of it's head and grace in every movement it made I knew immediately what it was - a Unicorn.

"Whoa," I said, and James took a step back from me, leaving me feeling slightly cold and vulnerable. The Patronus in front of me flickered before fading, leaving the room seemingly darker even though the fire was burning bright not five feet away.

"That was _awesome,_" Jill squealed and then her, Rose, and Tracy tackled me in a group hug Rose saying, "see I _told_ you that you'd get it eventually!"

"Can't. Breathe." I managed to breathe out and they all stepped away from me, grins stretched over their faces. Al stepped forward and gave me a tight squeeze as well, "good job," he murmured into my ear and I squeezed him back to show I'd heard.

"That's quite the Patronus," the girl I assumed was Jenny Lightbody commented and I smiled.

"Well, I guess it was worth the wait then," I said and James shot me a smile. Before I could second guess myself I had stepped forward and was giving him a hug (subtly turning my face into his neck so that I could get a deep breath of him, god whatever cologne he wore smelled fantastic) then I released him quickly and took a step back, "thanks for helping me," I said and he flashed me a smile that seemed somewhat dazed to me, causing me to wonder lightly if I had hugged him too tightly or something.

"No problem," he said, the dazed look leaving his face, _huh_, I thought and then shrugged it off and turned to the girl I thought was Jenny, she had pretty perfectly curled brown hair with a sweetheart shaped face and full red lips. Her eyes were this really pure emerald green color, all in all she could be a model.

"Are you Jenny?" I asked, holding out my hand and she nodded, a small smile curving the corners of her lips upwards.

"Yeah," she said, _Merlin, even her voice is pretty_, I thought, "and you must be Summer?" I startled a bit when she knew my name.

"How did you...?" I asked, shaking her hand lightly.

"Know your name? Easy, James. That's also how I met Luke," at this she sent a dreamy look to him and he smirked.

"Oh, are you and James good friends then?" Rose asked and I leaned in, suddenly interested to hear the answer.

"Oh, that," she waved her hand dismissively, "we're pretty close I guess, we had a sort of fling a ways back. I went up to this cabin his family owns over the summer a year ago. Pretty amazing snogger himself, and amazing in other ways, if you catch my drift," she shot us a flirty wink and at her words I could feel my muscles tensing. I looked down at the floor as a flash of something hot and hungry burned through my body. _Am I... jealous?_ I asked myself cautiously as I pasted a smile on my face and looked up as though I was still engaged in the conversation, although they had long since moved on from the topic of James.

"Summer, what do you think?" Jill asked suddenly and I looked around at the girls.

"Oh, sorry what? I didn't catch that," the girls chuckled lightly and Tracy piped up from the side.

"Jenny asked us if next Hogsmeade trip we'd want to hang out with her for the day? Her best friend is dating Fred," at this Jill's eyes tightened a little bit and I made a mental note to ask her about that later, "and they're going on a date then."

Something in me really wanted to reject her offer but I knew she was a really nice girl, and I was being unreasonable. Though I shouldn't be doing this, because I _couldn't_ like James Potter, there was no way in hell. "Sure, that sounds fun," the girls squealed again and went back to planning. Soon Jenny's friend came back over and they began gossiping and comparing stories of their boyfriends, they both seemed totally blown away by them, and I really didn't want to be around for more sappy talk.

"Celebrate my learning the Patronus with ice cream?" I asked and they all nodded in agreement, I glanced once more at James before we left but he was saying something to Fred and I left slightly unsatisfied.

We were quiet as we slipped down the empty corridors to the Kitchens on the first floor. We were careful to watch out for Filch, Ms. Norris, and Peeves (as he was most likely done terrorizing Felix at this point) as we jumped trip steps and avoiding the creaky stone three paces from the wall. Paintings on the walls looked at us disapprovingly but said nothing, just tutted and returned to their sleep.

We finally made it to the first floor, and the corridor that held the Kitchens (after a near escape when I had tripped over my own two feet and crashed into a suit of armor, bringing it to the ground with me. The loud crash had woke portraits and teachers alike within hearing range and Filch had come running as fast as his old legs would take him). I stepped forwards and tickled the pear lightly, watching as it turned into a doorknob, before pulling the entrance open.

We were immediately swarmed by house elves as we stepped through into the warm and brightly lit kitchen, it always reminded me of my mom's own kitchen in the years when Kelly and I were both still little and my dad didn't have a job that kept him away from us more often than not.

"Can Pickles get anything for missus?" a particularly small house elf with ears that didn't flop quite as much as the others asked me and I looked at the others, evaluating their expressions.

"We'll have a box of chocolates, a butterbeer each, and some ice cream. Is that ok?" I asked politely (the other girls had nodded along with my order so I knew they didn't have anything to add to it).

"Oh, no problem at all, missus! Pickles will be back right away, Pickles will!" Pickles disappeared in the blink of an eye, weaving her (at least I assumed the small house elf was a her) way through the crowd of other elves. She was back almost immediately with a large box of intricately decorated chocolates, a large tray with mugs of steaming butterbeer, and a large tub of ice cream with sparkling silver spoons - one for each of us

"Oh, this looks lovely, Pickles! Thank you so much!" I exclaimed, taking the food from her and setting it on a nearby table where we crowded around the food.

"No problem, missus! Pickles loves to serve you, missus! Anything else that missus will be needing from Pickles?" she asked and we all shook our heads. She was off again, running back through the crowds to return to whatever chore she had been doing before we had interrupted her with our arrival.

I immediately picked up the mug of butterbeer and downed a large swallow, feeling the warm bubbly feeling course through my veins as the beverage hit my stomach.

"Whoa there girl," Tracy said, handing me a spoon as they opened the tub of ice which happened to be Chocolate Moose Tracks - my favorite. Jill giggled as she sipped on her butterbeer (it was already half gone, she was one of those people where you look away for one minute and her whole meal is gone).

"I think that someone is jealous," she said, smiling widely. I looked at her, confused.

"Who?" I asked, then a knowing smirk came across my face, "you?" she choked on the sip of butterbeer that she had just taken and Tracy gave her a hard smack across the back. Jill quickly regained her composure and gave me a disdainful look, though it didn't have much impact on me as I could tell she was joking.

"A lady must always keep her secrets guarded," Jill said, nose in the air like a pompous rich girl. She held the facade for a moment before she dissolved into giggles with the rest of us.

"So you do like Fred?" I asked and Jill looked thoughtful for a split second before a mischievous smile came across her face.

"I don't know, do you like James?" she asked, it was my turn to choke on butterbeer as she said that and all the girls leaned in closer.

"Come on," Tracy said knowingly, "who wouldn't like him? I mean he's got that hot body,"

"And that smirk," Jill continued.

"Oh my gosh, his face is just perfect," Rose said, though her's was pretty sarcastic.

"And have you seen him shirtless?" Tracy asked, turning to Jill.

"With those six pack abs!" Jill squealed.

"I know! And his V li-" Tracy was cut of by me downing the rest of my butterbeer and mumbling, face red, "okay, so maybe I do have a teeny tiny crush on him. Is that bad?" I asked and the girls immediately sobered.

"Sweetheart, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being attracted to someone. Especially not someone as fine as James Bloody Potter," Jill said.

"Or Fred Bloody Weasley," I added slyly onto the end, Jill rolled her eyes but nodded slightly in agreement.

"But you need to accept that you like him, Sunny, you can't keep pushing him away and fighting with him because you don't want to admit your feelings, do you promise to at least try and accept your feelings for him?" Tracy implored and I nodded, giving her a smile to show I was serious.

"Yeah, alright... I just... What if he doesn't like me the same way?" I asked slowly and the other girls rolled their eyes.

"Trust me on this one. He likes you," Rose said and I laughed.

"So you do admit that you like him?" Jill asked.

"Didn't I already?" I muttered, not liking the idea of having to say it to all of their expectant faces again. When I finally realized they weren't going to continue the conversation until I had said it again - granted it took a while - I sighed and continued, "I, Summer Green, like James Frickin' Potter. Okay?"

"Okay." Rose, Tracy, and Jill all crowed together. There was a momentary pause in conversation again as we all sipped our drinks, but it didn't last long.

"Summer?" Rose asked and I grunted to show that I was listening as I took another large swallow from my butterbeer, "what were you thinking of that last time? When your Patronus worked?"

I swallowed slowly, debating how to answer, "I don't know, I wasn't really thinking of much of anything. I couldn't concentrate because James was right there and he was drawing these little patterns into my wrist and Merlin he smelled so good so I just kinda... Did it?" there was silence for a moment and then, completely together as though they'd choreographed it there was a chorus of, "awwww, you were thinking about him!"s.

"That's so romantic!" Rose squealed, and this time she 100% meant it.

"Girl, you have it bad for this boy," Tracy remarked, drinking slowly out of her own butterbeer. I looked down at mine, it was nearly empty, but I didn't even have time to frown before another house elf was standing by our table refilling our glasses with more of the frothing, steaming, amber liquid.

"What were all of you guys thinking about when you cast your Patronus?" I asked and they smiled.

"I was thinking about-" Rose broke off the sentence with a cough and glanced at Jill and Tracy before sighing and draining a large portion of her butterbeer, "I need to be drunk for this," she explained, "well, I was kind of thinking of the first time Scorpius and I kissed."

"Wait... You and Scorpius?" Jill asked.

"As in... Scorpius Malfoy?" Tracy clarified, they both leaned forwards and then realized that I wasn't joining in their questioning and turned on me.

"And you knew?!" they said together, "and didn't tell us?!"

"That," I said, finishing off my second glass of butterbeer, "was creepy."

We all dissolved into giggles for the next few minutes, munching occasionally on the ice cream and chocolates (they were both amazing, melting as soon as they hit your mouth).

"I was thinking about this one time over the holidays when Jill, James, Fred, and I were hanging out together. Jill and James have always been close," she glanced over at me, "in a purely platonic way and so Fred and I got some alone time. It was the day I first realized that I really really liked him. Then afterwards my family had this huge get together and everyone was there and... That day was just perfect," Jill sighed deeply, polishing off her sixth glass, mixed in with the two shots of firewhiskey each (minus Tracy, who said there had to be one sober person to get us back to the common room) that we had sweet talked out of the house elves.

"Oh my gosh Jill, maybe you should stop drinking," I giggled, still drinking the last of my fourth glass as I said this "you're gonna get so drunk!"

"Darling, you guys are all already way drunk," Tracy said, she was pretty sober as she was only halfway through her second glass.

"You're not," Rose said, frowning a little, "you're missing out on all the fun!" she exclaimed suddenly, nearly falling off of her seat as she straightened suddenly.

"Oh, something tells me that I'm going to be the happiest out of all of us tomorrow," she said and I knew she was right, though I kept working slowly on my fifth glass. After we had finished up the ice cream and chocolate (and Tracy had cut us off at six, seven for Jill as she had already gotten hers, drinks) we got up to leave.

Already being someone with very unstable balance I immediately leaned all the way to the right and crashed into a wall.

"Oh, hello there! You must be pretty lonely, just sitting here all the time. Are you lonely, wall?" I asked it, Tracy laughed at me as the other two giggled and she hooked my arm through hers.

"Come on, girly, let's get you to bed," she said. The walk up to Gryffindor Common Room was a long and tedious journey. We had to pause often because Rose or Jill crashed into something, I tripped over my own feet (even with Tracy holding onto me), or a teacher or Filch was nearby. Eventually we did make it, luckily without being caught, though the paintings were even more disgruntled with us than on the way down as we were prone to random bursts of laughter or noise and we occasionally bump into one of their frames, knocking them off kilter. Tracy would then let go of me for a second to fix them, apologize, and then we'd be back on our merry way.

As Tracy gave the Fat Lady the password I giggled loudly and stumbled over the slight step and almost falling on my face. Tracy sighed and caught my arm.

"Sorry, Trace," I giggled and she rolled her eyes.

"Just shush, it's like-" she looked around for a clock but didn't get the chance to finish the sentence.

"It's like three in the morning!" Fred said, standing up from the couches abruptly, James was sitting behind him watching as I tripped over a rug and Tracy grabbed onto me again.

"Oh my Merlin, Sunny! Just sit down ok? I'll handle this," she muttered and I obliged willingly.

"We should definitely be asleep," I said loudly, "I think even the fireflies are asleep now, do you think the fireflies are asleep Jill?" I asked, as a half-blood she'd be sure to know what fireflies are.

"Definitely," Jill giggled, stumbling over to the window, "no little lights below, they've definitely all gone to their little beds."

"Why are we up past the fireflies?" I asked, face pulling down in confusion.

"That is such an excellent question," James said, "though phrased in a very drunk manor."

"That's because I am drunk, silly," I said, giggling as that shut him up.

"Oh god," Tracy moaned, "I thought we all said 'no telling the boys we got drunk'? What happened to no telling the boys?"

"When did we say that?" I asked, confused beyond belief now, why weren't the fireflies still awake if we were awake? And why was Tracy saying things we didn't say?

"Right after we commented on James physique and Tucker's sexuality," Rose giggled and the boys stood, rooted in their spots as we all giggled.

"Oh! That one, I thought we meant Al! Where is Al anyways?" I asked, then held my head as the world spun in an ever rotating circle of colors and lights when I stood abruptly, I stumbled again and this time it was James who caught me and held me close to him.

"How much did you have to drink?" James groaned and I frowned up at his scowling face.

"You don't look nearly as handsome when you scowl like that," I said and his mouth twitched up into a half smile as he lowered himself to my height.

"How many glasses did you have, Sunny?" he asked, I barely even noticed his use of my nickname - not my first name, or even last name - as I tried to think back that far.

"I- I think that I had... Six. Yeah, I had six glasses of butterbeer because Tracy is a party pooper and cut us off. She didn't even let us catch up with Jill's seventh glass. And then we had those two shots of Firewhiskey that we talked the house elves into giving us," Tracy nodded at James to show him that I was correct and he sighed. My eyes were drooping and I leaned into James.

"You smell nice," I murmured, gripping onto his shirt as I finally slipped into sleep, the last thing I remembered were berating voices rumbling near my ear and warm, muscular arms lifting me up into the air.

XXXXX

I awoke to my brain trying to beat it's way out of my skull with a sledgehammer, someone had also let the circus elephant's practice their routine in there for some reason and as the light slipped through my eyelids it sent blinding pain shoot through me.

I groaned and rolled over, only to be pulled back into someone by a very warm, very muscular arm that happened to be connected to none other than James. Bloody. Potter. I groaned again and quickly checked to make sure I was fully clothed (I was), that he was fully clothed (he was wearing a Puddlemere United jersey), and that we hadn't overslept lessons again (I gladly remembered that it was a Saturday, exactly a week until the dance).

Closing my eyes again I was fully planning on going to back to sleep until James shifted next to me and lifted a hand to brush the hair out of my face.

"Summer, you awake?" he asked quietly, "please don't hate me but you need to get up." I groaned again and he shushed me with a hand over my mouth. I licked his hand quickly and he rolled his eyes, "god, you can be such a child."

"Hey," I complained, "elephants are learning the congo routine on my brain, I think I have some leeway."

"I'll go get you a potion for that," James said, getting up and disappearing quickly into the bathroom. I took the opportunity to snuggle down under the blankets, pulling the pillow over my head, followed by the blankets over the pillow. Everything here smelled like James. I heard a throaty chuckle that sent a shiver down my spine, the bed dipped to side slightly and I felt myself sliding to the edge and then into someone's arms.

"Come on sleepyhead, time to get up and face the day," James said, placing the potion into my hand. I downed it in one go, almost immediately the elephant's left on their circus and my skull decided that it did, indeed, like it's place in my skull very much.

"Oh Merlin that feels so much better," I sighed, curling closer towards James before I could think about what I was doing. When I did realize the situation we were in a stiffened and James sighed, immediately putting me down. "Why am I in your room? Why was I in your bed? Why were you in your bed? What's going on? Oh god, what the hell did we do last night?" I groaned as the night of drunken stupor slowly made its way back to me.

"House elves should definitely not serve firewhiskey," I said firmly, staring up at James with wide eyes, he chuckled, smiling down at me. His smile left me breathless and I had to look away before I babbled my feelings for him or something equally embarrassing.

"To answer your questions, you're in my room because you were in no state to make it up to your bed last night and I didn't want you sleeping down in the commons where you'd be woken really early by the early risers. You were in my bed because I didn't think it would be gentlemanly to make you sleep on the floor, even if you were drunk. I was in the bed with you because when I tried to go grab some blankets to sleep on the floor you wouldn't let go of me and you were mumbling something about 'I was warm'" I blushed a deep red at that and he chuckled, eyes roaming my face before he looked out the window.

"So where are Jill and Fred? And what about Tracy and Rose?" I asked, noticing the absence of other people in the dorm.

"Jill and Fred left awhile ago, Jill is a remarkable early riser for someone who got wasted the night before, Tracy wasn't nearly as drunk as you three so she slept in her own bed, and Rose..." he glanced around the room with a frown, "probably left as soon as she woke up, while I was still asleep."

All of a sudden my stomach let out a low growl before subsiding in a series of grumbles. James raised his eyebrows at my stomach before looking at the clock.

"They're probably just setting up lunch, do you want to go down?" he asked, I nodded quickly before looking down at what I was wearing.

"I should probably change before we go," I sighed. After we made it down the stairs (I tripped twice over something that James apparently couldn't feel, I swear there was something there) I skipped up to the sixth year girls' dorm and threw on a pair of jeans with a light weight Ballycastle Bats t-shirts (my sister, Kelly, and I were both huge fans and for my last birthday Rose had gotten us two tickets to see them in the European Cup - it was a spectacular win).

James was waiting for me in one of the plush seats by the fire when I got downstairs and I kept in a smile at the sight of him. I remembered promising Tracy to at least try with him and not push him away because I don't want to be hurt and I couldn't blame it on the drinks as I wasn't completely wasted yet. So, with a sigh, I made my feet move forwards until I was standing in front of him.

"Ready?" I asked and he nodded, we made our way down to the Great Hall in an awkward silence. When we got there he held the door for me as I slipped inside and quickly made my way to the table, slipping in beside Al and Rose.

"Hey," I mumbled, loading my plate with bacon, a cup of soup, and some fruit. Suddenly a hand was reaching over my plate and loading it up with a few sandwiches and a donut as well.

"Carbs help the day after," James explained, moving on to go sit by Fred.

"Oh!" Tracy and Jill squealed together, it was really getting creepy how they did that. Did they practice or something?

"How did you sleep?" Jill said suggestively, sending me a saucy wink.

"I'm sure he was nothing but a gentleman," Tracy told her, reaching her hand over the table and snagging some fruit off my plate.

"Oh, I don't know," Jill said, "it seemed like Summer was definitely-"

"I am sitting right here!" I burst out suddenly and Fred looked over at us curiously when the girls broke down into giggles.

"What did I miss?" Al asked suddenly, his plate consisting of everything meat related in a 5 foot radius.

"Summer and James like each other," Jill said knowingly and Al almost choked on the piece of ham he was eating.

"And they slept in the same bed last night," Rose added thoughtfully, "I saw you guys when I got up,"

Al groaned and pushed his plate away, "I think I just lost my appetite," he grumbled, and he did look like he was about to be sick, "I do not want to imagine my older brother with one of my best friends."

"Well, you're gonna have to get used to it," Tracy said, "especially if you walk in on them getting all hot and heavy sometime-"

"Did not need that mental image!" Al and I shouted, my face burned at the thought of someone walking in on something like that, especially if it was Al. Then my stomach filled up with butterflies at the thought of James and I getting _hot and heavy_, oh my Merlin.


End file.
